After several days of Mudcat-downtime, I finally got to see this thread!

The announcement is no surprise, the road touring takes its toll for sure, and Les has done more than his share.
Thankyou so much Les, I wish you well, peace and contentment in your richly-deserved retirement from the "stage".

Brian Peters' assessment is absolutely spot-on.
Yes, Les is unique, a masterful observer of the human condition, the comic and tragic. And although he's truly irreplaceable on the live circuit, we can rejoice that he will not be hanging up his pen, and that he will be carrying on with his writing and his YouTube channel.

And of course, we can be glad that we now have even more chances to explore and celebrate the many and varied aspects of Les's poetic genius, since his writings are being given wider exposure through the passing of the interpretive torch to sympathetic practitioners (e.g. Pelagie Crofton, whose insightful performances have become a regular feature of a number of zoom sessions especially the Mudcat Worldwide Singaround).