[Byron Society home page] [Other works by Danny]

Commentary on "Ode on Lord Steven's Thirtieth Anniversaire"

Leaving aside obvious question: If Steve were truly Byronic, how come that he lived to the age of thirty?, we find here an opus where, uniquely in Byron Society literature, factual accuracy has been compromised for poetical effect. Nonetheless, the famed Hoey imagination is not exaggerated. This is the instrument that can turn a person’s first impression from, ‘what a nice, straightforward, friendly guy that Steve Hoey is!’ to ‘I can’t believe that I thought this perverted, sick, evil monster was straightforward and nice’ within a matter of minutes. It is worth mentioning here also Steve’s strong musical gift. His brothers tell me that this dominated his life when they were growing up. He plays keyboard instruments and the flute well, and when he was at Oxford gave a flute recital in the chapel. At the time of writing (July 96) he is setting up shop as a composer. Finally, the incredible memory. Only, of course, for things that interest him, but many are the films that it has not been necessary for me to see because Steve has described them at length, in painstaking detail, having seen them just once (CH).