Poems and Articles from The Daily Express (UK)
Editor's Note: Thanks goes to Terry Mordue for tracking down scans of these rare items, and for annotations. Thanks also to Parthasarathy Uppilisrinivasan for part of the transcription.
The Parrot verses - September 30 - December 21, 1903
Screech Day - December 18, 1903
A Fiscal Pantomime (with B. Fletcher Robinson) - December 28, 1903 *
Fiscal Problems for Breakfast - February 6, 1904
Election Songs (verse) - January 11, 1906
It was the Stout Progressive on the Tram (verse) - February 8, 1907 **
To Thomas, Songster (verse) - March 15, 1907
* With annotations by Terry Mordue
** McIlvaine lists this erroneously as The Professor on the Train
Daily Express (UK)
The Daily Express was founded in 1900 by Sir Arthur Pearson. Pearson sold the title after losing his sight and it was bought in 1916 by the future Lord Beaverbrook. It was one of the first papers to carry gossip, sports, and women's features, and the first newspaper in Britain to have a crossword. The Russian communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky wrote despatches for the paper following his expulsion from the Soviet Union in 1929. (from Wikipedia)
Arthur Pearson was the first editor from 1900-1901, followed by Betram Fletcher Robinson who edited it till 1904. It was during this time that PGW wrote a series of satirical political poems entitled "The Parrot". While they did not appear under P.G.W's name, at least one of his biographers has written that it was an open secret in Fleet street that PGW was the author. McIlvaine does not list all of the parrot poems, only half. We present the full series here, for what it's worth.
© www.MadamEulalie.org.