Four divorces and a book of love poems: A Tywyn bard turns his rocky romantic life into verse

February 12, 2026

Four divorces and a book of love poems: A Tywyn bard turns his rocky romantic life into verse

By Ros Dodd

He describes himself as a "hopeless romantic" and has just published a book of love poems, but Tywyn author, artist and bard Tony Stringfellow will be spending Valentine's Day on his own. Well, not quite on his own, for he shares his life with his adored four-year-old Border Collie called Babe. After four marriages - and four divorces - plus lots of love affairs in between, Tony has abandoned his lifelong search for a soulmate and instead is content to devote himself to his beloved pet and the "relaunch of my life in poetry".

Although the title of his new book of verse, Redundant Love Poems: Four Weddings and Decree Absolutes, is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, there's obviously sadness and poignancy attached to the 68-year-old's decision to publish dozens of poems written to the women he's loved - and lost - over the course of five decades.

"I put my heart and soul into each of my marriages, and my love affairs, but looking back I think maybe I was in love with romance itself," explains Tony, who once made theatrical costumes and props for the likes of Ken Dodd, Joe Pasquale and Timmy Mallett. "Every break-up has hurt like hell, and there were different reasons every time. Although I wasn't a saint when I was much younger, the break-ups weren't all because of me. But the search for lasting love is over now, which is why I've called the book Redundant Love Poems."

Tony concedes his relationships were probably shaped by "something underlying": when he was about seven, he discovered that in 1955, two years before he was born, he'd had a brother called Johnny who was killed by a milk float outside the family home. "My mom and dad rarely spoke about it, and as a result of what happened they were over-protective of me to the extent that I felt stifled." Then, at the age of nine, Tony suffered the trauma of seeing his maternal grandfather die of a heart attack while he was sitting on his lap. His parents' premature deaths, in their mid-50s and just five months apart, also deeply affected him.

Poetry, then, perhaps became a way to channel his feelings - consciously or otherwise. He started penning verse at a young age and had his first poem, titled Pollution, published on the letters page of the local newspaper when he was nine.

Born and brought up in Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, Tony worked in his uncle's butcher's shop before being pressed into getting a "proper job" by his father and joining construction company Tarmac as a trainee civil engineer. "But the day I got my qualifications, I handed in my notice, much to the annoyance of my dad. But I told him that while I'd never get to own Tarmac, I would get to own a butcher's shop." And within two years, he did.

By then, Tony was married to his first wife. "I was 20 when I first got married, in 1977, but it only lasted two-and-a-half years; we were too young. But out of all my marriages, I wish she and I were still together."

Tony and his first bride

His second wife was a dancer, and together they opened a town centre shop selling theatre and dance costumes, called Stageworld. "Although my butcher's shop was successful, I could see the writing on the wall for independents due to the rise of supermarkets stocking meat products, so my wife and I decided to go into business together. I'd always been an artist, as well as a poet, and I was a huge music fan, too. I realised I could use my artistic skills to create puppets, costumes and props.

"To start with, we supplied amateur dramatic productions, but then we decided we were good enough to tap into the professional market, so we advertised in The Stage magazine."

One day in the shop, Tony picked up the phone and a voice announced: "This is Ken Dodd." Thinking it was a friend playing a prank, Tony put the receiver down. But it rang again - and it really was the legendary Knotty Ash entertainer. That call proved to be the start of a long working relationship, with Tony going on to make props - from a kitchen sink made out of foam to a giant blunderbuss "gun" - for Ken Dodd's TV and stage shows until almost the end of his career.

Tony's love life wasn't as successful, however, for after 14 years and three children, his second marriage broke up. His third marriage - during which he continued to work in TV and theatre - struggled under the pressure of various health problems that affected several of the six children they shared between them, and the couple parted ways after eight years.

By now, Tony was exhausted by the demands of the prop-making work and moved into public relations writing, as well as taking up poetry again. And then, shortly into his fourth marriage, he wrote his most successful book, The Wizard's Gown: Beneath the Glitter of Marc Bolan, which contained previously unseen handwritten poems by the late rock star. "I'd always been a fan of his music, and he was a poet too, and a deep thinker, and I was able to track down and buy some of the poems he'd written, in his handwriting. I analysed them and included them in the book, along with an interview I did with the actor Riggs O'Hara, who had a big influence on Bolan. The book was first published in 2007 and it's since sold thousands of copies and still sells now."

Tony's illustration of Bolan in the book

By this time, Tony was living in Shropshire, where he joined the Anglo-Welsh Poetry Society and had his first collection of verse, Silent Solitudes, published. An audio collection of his work, called Naked Therapy, was played back-to-back in New York library Poet's House for a month in 2010. "For me, that was above cool. I still have a bit of a following in the US now."

Tony then gained his PGCE qualification and started teaching art at Shrewsbury and then Drake Hall prisons, which he did for about five years, also editing a prison magazine that won a Koestler Award for arts in criminal justice.

And then his fourth marriage collapsed. "I'd just finished renovating our cottage when I came home one day and my wife said she was leaving. It came completely out of the blue. She left and I never saw her again."

After the divorce, Tony was desperate for a fresh start and decided to move to Wales, as "I'd always wanted to live by the sea".

So, in 2017, he bought a caravan in Porthmadog, which he rented out, and took a flat in Barmouth, where he opened an art studio called Paper Swan. But when another romantic relationship came to an end, Tony suffered a "major breakdown" and felt the need to move again. He found a job at Brighter Foods in Tywyn and whilst commuting spotted the cottage he now lives in and decided to relocate. Six years on, he's come to terms with being single and has found peace in dog walks on the beach and immersing himself in poetry again. Last year, he joined Tywyn Poets, a group he now jointly runs with Claudia Mortimer, and this year he aims to organise live poetry performances.

"Poetry was my first love and it's been a constant throughout my life - so it feels fitting that I've been able to turn my somewhat chequered romantic history into a book of verse," muses Tony. "It also feels apt to have relaunched my life in poetry here beside the sea, where I've always wanted to be, with what has turned out to be the love of my life - Babe."

* The next meeting of Tywyn Poets is on February 19th in Tywyn Library at 10.30am. Redundant Love Poems and other publications by Tony Stringfellow are available via Amazon.