ARTS & CULTURE
THE CHISWICK MAGAZINE
Brentford actor turns to writing to escape Covid nightmare by Áine McGinty
Life was turned upside down for all of us in March 2020 when we were ordered to stay at home to help stop the spread of Covid-19. Some were saving lives, some were key to keeping society running, some were able to work from home, and some were forced into the unknown, with their income and identity ripped away from them. One of those was actor John Griffiths.
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orn and raised in Swansea, John has lived in west London since 1970 moving from Ealing to Brentford ten years ago. ‘‘It’s been such a brilliant move. It must be one of the friendliest streets in west London!’’ John couldn’t praise his community more, telling me all about their impromptu socially distanced parties and his neighbours coming out to clap every Thursday. ‘‘It’s true what they say, Brentford is brilliant.’’
taken to writing to document the unusual, although familiar to many, situation he found himself in when the curtains closed on his livelihood. He went from being out of work thanks to Covid-19 to being a part of the Chiswick Book Festival 2021 Local Authors’ Party. But how does an actor turn to such a different creative outlet? It all started with the three P’s, John explains, prayer, poem and psalms. ‘‘I decided early on I needed some creative focus,’’ he tells me. But like many of us, John couldn’t settle and was so preoccupied with
Thanks to the pandemic, John went from an actor to an author, having
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