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The teacher who inspired... Chris De Burgh Just before I went to Marlborough College, my family moved into a crumbling castle without heating or lighting in south-east Ireland. I left this place which inspired my dreams and imagination, already fired by years of living all over the world carrying a large suitcase. I took the ferry and train to Wiltshire to join 800 other boys at the college. My English teacher, Mr Dennis Silk, was a big man with a square jaw. He played rugby and cricket and he was probably in his early 30s, but of course he seemed quite ancient to a 13-year-old. He was a disciplinarian, but always fair and it was the enthusiasm which he brought to the English class that had such an impact on me. I love the poems of Robert Browning mainly because of the way Dennis brought them alive. I still remember sitting in the classroom, reading the dramatic monologue My Last Duchess. "That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive." I can still recite it. We were intrigued with the story as he took each line apart and implored us to read it three times until we could hear the snarling voice of the Duke and finally understood that he had had his wife murdered. The whole piece came to life; I saw the story unfolding like a film. I have referred to that excitement in virtually all the songs I've written; I see them as a picture, a moving scenario. And I've taken that enthusiasm into so many things in my life. I often spoke to my family about Dennis and my wife remembered him when the research team from This is Your Life came. When he appeared, I was choked. |
File last modified on August 26, 2006