Where are they Now?

[ contact regained ]

You know how it is, I'm sure. For all sorts of reasons, people who where once of great importance drop out of your life, never to be seen again. This page is about some of those who did that with me. It's both my way of acknowledging the important part they played in my life and expressing my gratitude to them for that, and a means by which I hope that perhaps I might be able to make contact with them again. All the places mentioned are in the UK. If you are one of the people listed below, please get in touch with me. If you know one of these folks, please let them know that I'd like to hear from them, thanks!

Steve Fagg

Matthew David Harrison

Matthew Harrison was born in 1957 or '58 and lived and went to school in Stratford-on-Avon in the early seventies, after which he studied for a chemistry degree at Loughborough University from 1976 to 1979, but did not graduate. We were very close friends while at Loughborough and could often be found in each others company: playing pinball in the bar, hanging out at the studios of the student radio station, or talking all night over a chinese takeaway.

In his first year at University (1976-7), Matthew lived in the Hazelrigg-Rutland Hall of residence on the Loughborough campus. Subsequently he lived in digs in the town. He was a member of several student Christian groups at University including the Catholic, Methodist, and Anglican Societies, worked on the "Sunday on Monday" Christian radio programme on the student radio station, and was a member of an informal study group that met on Sunday evenings in the home of Bernard Rattigan, one of the Loughborough Student Counsellors.
After University, Matthew lived in the Stockwell (South London) YMCA for a time, lived and worked at a newsagent's in the Lancaster Gate area of central London, and spent a brief while at the YWCA in Harlow. During that time he was involved with a young woman called Trudie who was a trainee in the hotel and catering business. Matthew was an habitué of the Walkabout and Drifters clubs for ex-patriot Aussies in the Lancaster Gate area. I last saw him in 1987 and I understand that he went back to live in Stratford-on-Avon at that time and was, at least for a while, working at a pub in the town.
Matthew's overriding passion was for music, especially that of Beethoven and Bach. He was also very interested in instrumental synthesizer music such as that of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. Matthew is a gifted keyboard player, with a special love of large church organs, and is well versed in classical music theory. He posseses a phenomenal intellect, but used to be impossibly disorganised personally. He's fairly tall, of medium build, and was already at the age of 30 losing his dark brown hair. Although his chaotic lifestyle could be hard to live with at times, I loved Matthew dearly and miss him tremendously.

Paul W. Rautenbach

I worked with Paul Rautenbacch at STL in Harlow for several years in the early eighties. We shared enthusiasm for the BBC Microcomputer, Indian food and the music of Al Stewart. Paul was very tolerant of this hot-headed youngster (though in truth our ages were pretty similar) and we formed an effective working partnership as well as a personal friendship. This partnership was only broken when my frustrations at not seeing any of our work go into production led me to join the defence side of the business in 1984. My conflicting feelings about that career move led to a breakdown in our friendship soon afterwards.

Paul had dark ginger hair and wore his beard long: a style that I subsequently affected. Always more academically inclined, he left STL to pursue more esoteric opportunities shortly after getting married. His uncommon name came from South Africa via New Zealand but my several searches on the Net haven't turned up any recent references. If you're out there, Paul, please get in touch!

As I say, I have lost touch with these dear friends and I no longer know where they are. But wherever they may be, I remember them all with tremendous fondness and would love to hear from any of them again. So, please, if you are one of the people listed above then I urge you to contact me so that we can get back in touch. And, if you know one of these folks, please let them know that Steve Fagg is keen to hear from them again after all these years, thanks!

And just to show how this wonderful net thingie can indeed re-unite old friends, across the miles and across the years, I'm delighted to record that I've regained contact with three of the people previously featured on this page as being missing...

John Kelly

A native of Glasgow, and a huge fan of Glasgow Celtic FC, John Kelly came to Harlow around 1980 to work as a research chemist at the Beecham Pharmaceuticals laboratories in the town (now the SmithKline-Beecham New Frontiers Science Park). For several years John lived in the Harlow YWCA before moving to flats in the Moorfields and Taylifers areas of town. John was a great lover of Indian food, a feared tackler on the soccer field, and a keen fantasy role-player. We shared a love of progressive rock music, especially groups such as Yes and Genesis. For much of his time in Harlow, John was courting a younger woman named Myra Young of Fernhill, Harlow. When he lost his job at Beecham's, John worked part-time behind the bar at the Garden Tiger pub in Harlow for a while before disappearing suddenly just before Christmas 1985. I believe that he probably went back to live with his family in the Glasgow area at that time. John was born in the early 1960s, had thick black hair, was of medium height and was pretty well built.

... managed to get in contact with me, by E-mail, early in 2000. John is indeed living in the Glasgow area and tracked me down, not (it has to be admitted) through this web-page but by means of Yahoo!'s People Tracker. Whatever, I was delighted to hear again from my old mate!

Jane Susan Fletcher

After getting a BSc from the University of Surrey at Guildford, Jane Fletcher came to live at the Harlow YWCA in 1980. After a year or so she moved to a flat in the Mark Hall district of Harlow. Jane introduced me to the music of KaTe Bush and Talking Heads and we had a shared interest in the music of the group Renaissance. I last saw Jane in 1985 after I had moved out of the YWCA but I know that for some time after that she was still working in the Quartz Crystals Division of STC on Edinburgh Way in Harlow. It's possible that Jane left Harlow to live in northeast London in the 1980s but I'm by no means sure of that. Jane was born in 1956 and is a little below average height, of medium build, and had fair hair.

... responded to an E-mail I sent to the author of the online stories 'The Leap' and 'The Queen of the Magpies' and The Wrong Trail Knife (a whole novel online) asking if she was the Jane Fletcher I used to know and I was delighted to learn that indeed she was. As for "Northeast London", she had indeed spent several years in Leyton after leaving the 'Y' so my geographical memory wasn't too far out.

Jane now lives in the southwest of England and is the author of four published novels: The World Celaeno Chose (1999), Lorimal's Chalice (2002), the conventional book form of The Wrong Trail Knife (2003) and The Walls of Westernfort (2005). The best source of Jane's books is the online bookstore Libertas! at:

http://www.libertas.co.uk/

I'm especially delighted to have regained contact with Jane: not only because she's a way cool person but also because she was the first link in the chain of events that led me to meet up with my wife, Lisa. If the author photo in Lorimal's Chalice is anything to go by, Jane's appearance hasn't changed much in twenty years!

Howard Grant Russon

Howard Russon lived for most of the 1960s and '70s in Allington Drive, Strood, Rochester, Kent, just down the road from me. His father was some kind of refrigeration equipment installer, and he had a sister named Cheryl. Howard and I were best friends for several years until attending different schools from age eleven (Howard was at Temple Farm Secondary Modern) separated us sometime around 1970. That was my last contact with him until, in the early eighties, my parents sent me a cutting from a local Rochester paper reporting on Howard's wedding to an oriental woman. A well-built chap of medium height and dark hair, Howard was born in 1958 and as a child suffered from something of a stutter.

... signed up to the wonderful web-site Friends Reunited. On seeing his name appear there, under the listing for our Primary School (Gordon Road, Strood) I sent him an excited E-mail inviting him to get in touch. This he duly did. His wife's connections with South-East Asia resulted in them settling in Singapore but the wonder of the Net means that the thousands of miles between us are easily bridged. And speaking of Friends Reunited...

Penny Walker

... sent me an E-mail via that site in 2002 to re-establish contact for the first time since 1969. She not only filled me in on the outline of the last thirty years of her life (she's married to a paster, Graham Hutchinson, and has raised a family) but also told me about the Centenary celebrations at the Gordon Road school in Strood where we knew each other. I'd missed the event but Penny was there and told me about many of the teachers we both knew. I was especially delighted to get an E-mail out of the blue from Penny because...