User:Egonb

My name morphed into Egon Boczek in the course of visits to an Internet Cafe run by East Europeans, where I held an account under the name Egon. When the staff greeted me by this name I grew to like it and adopted it as a street name. I added Boczek, which is Polish for bacon, to complete the joke and remind me to eat in the morning. Polish people laugh at the name - half of the joke - since Boczek is well-known in Poland as a character, in a sitcom about a dysfunctional family, who drinks too much, eats cholesterol loaded food and is good natured, gullible and none too smart, not all of which I identify with.

I allow myself to end sentences with a single preposition but not more and not too often. I am a stickler for good use of English, but not pedantry, and keep my copy of Fowler's within reach. This is not for reading but as a warning of possible self-flagellation which could result from too egregious a fall from grace. I believe that the language, closely followed by top-fermentation of beer and Association football rank as England's finest contributions to the world.

I come from a place chosen by George Orwell to stand as an example of the hardships endured by the working class in the industrial north of England. His writings encouraged my interest in politics and in literature. I agree with Christopher Hitchens that he matters today. I have recently become immersed in Memory of Fire by Eduardo Galeano which I have found by turns engaging, stimulating and profoundly moving. I have tried to get a major national bookseller to promote Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass World after I found their solitary copy shelved in an obscure place at the summit of a system of staircases which called to mind the labyrinth in the Name of the Rose. When I drew this to the attention of the sales assistant he was surprised to learn that the Name of the Rose was a book, which was not the best start to the campaign. I believe this book should be in every school library and hope that one day it will become required reading. However this isn't a realistic prospect under the national curriculum reforms of the present UK government. I am an admirer of the work of Egon Schiele, of Francis Bacon the Anglo-Irish painter and Francis Bacon the Elizabethan Philosopher.

I am Anglo-Irish but not in the same way.

I am a long time reader of Wikipedia who finally decided to stop ignoring the many invitations to get involved and to contribute.