A Cockney Boy
I’m thankful I’m a London boy, that’s where I was born, bred and raised.
I’ll stay a London boy until the end of my days.
I don’t want to change a thing, I’m proud of what I am.
I would hate to live a life where all is just a sham.
I had a good education, as I went to a very good school.
I can speak in an upper-class voice, but speech is only a tool.
I look on life in a cheerful way, always trying to smile.
But lately, I have to say, I can only hold that pose for a while!
Now, too many people are pedestrian, with scarcely a thought of their own.
Instead of what’s on their shoulders, there should be a hollow stone.
Platitudes don’t sit well with me, they’re meaningless and banal.
I prefer people with an imaginative mind, who are insightful and have their own style.
London is an ever-changing city, with an ever-changing face.
It can be a challenging scene, if you don’t know your way around the place
Foreign languages are spoken everywhere, unnecessarily rude sometimes it seems to me.
Because I’m just plain speaking man. I’m a cockney boy you see!
© 2014, Danny Kemp. All rights reserved.
About Daniel Kemp
At the age of seventy-six, Daniel Kemp has started his second year of studying the science of Psychology at the Open University. He is a member of The Society of Authors and also a bestselling writer. However, in early September 2025, he was diagnosed with cancer. He is now in palliative care at home, being looked after by his ex-wife. When he was writing his novels, he enjoyed writing stories that appealed to those who liked challenging themselves to solve mysteries that were set out before their eyes, but they couldn't.
His introduction to the world of espionage and mystery happened at an early age when his father was employed by the War Office in Whitehall, London, at the end of WWII. However, it wasn’t until after his father died that he showed any interest in anything other than himself!
On leaving academia he took on many roles in his working life: a London police officer, mini-cab business owner, pub tenant and licensed London taxi driver, but never did he plan to become a writer. Nevertheless, after a road traffic incident left him suffering from PTSD and effectively—out of paid work for four years, he wrote and self-published his first novel —The Desolate Garden.
Within three months of publication, that book was under a paid option to become a $30 million film. The option lasted for six years until distribution became an insurmountable problem for the production company.
All ten of his novels are now published by Next Chapter Publishing Company which has added an edition titled The Heirs And Descendants Collection, which holds all four books of that series, alongside an edition titled The Lies And Consequences Collection which contains all four volumes of that series.
He is the recipient of rave reviews from a prestigious Manhattan publication and described as—the new Graham Green—by a highly placed executive of Waterstones Books, for whom he did a countrywide tour of book signing events. He has also appeared on 'live' television in the UK publicising his first novel.
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