About me
Who is Boathook Bald?
Boathook Bald is the creation of Storyteller and Performance Poet Ledger de la Bald who was born at Brown Bottom, an outlying district of Poole, Dorset. An early love of writing failed to impress his teachers due to his aversion to writing where, when and what he was supposed to. To the mutual relief of all parties he left school shortly after his fifteenth birthday.
After brief forays into a variety of occupations - boatman, boatyard hand, boat builder and fisherman to name but a few - he eventually went to work for the Pilot Service, crewing the cutters that conveyed the harbour pilots to and from ships in Poole Harbour. This job lasted for 24 years until a suspected case of pogonophobia coupled with spending cuts saw him being made involuntarily redundant.
Alongside of these full time jobs he was writing for magazines, writing and performing poetry in folk clubs, art centres and at festivals as well as writing his first full length novel, 'Hunting the Great White Prawn'. Given his lifetime connection to the sea it is no surprise that this is the element which forms the basis of his tales. All of his work is self-penned, is often humorous and his tales, in the true tradition of sailors' yarns, are inclined toward great exaggeration in the telling.
As well as his solo performances he also appears as one half of 'Alongshore', a duo with traditional English folk singer Vic Baines (AKA Pendlecheek, see Links page). Alongshore weave together song and poetry to relate tales of the folk who live by, and work upon, the sea.
Ledger can be contacted on 07971 859098
email: baldilocks_54@hotmail.co.uk