Born and brought up in Liverpool, then lived in centralScotland for 24 years, now based in York. Before retirement in 2019, I worked in IT for 40+ years, back to days considered prehistoric in computer terms...! More recently I've become a TEFL-qualified teacher (English as a foreign language) and I'm also working on my French (intermediate level).
Hoping to catch a literary spark from my 19th century ancestors, the Welsh bards Alafon, Llifon and Taliesin, I try to entertain through writing, and I hope you will enjoy these poems, pictures and the links to other creative activities. ========================================================= PUBLICATION BACKGROUND
In 2019-20, I completed 3 books of verse and learnt some of the do's and don'ts of self-publishing.
In 2021 I launched a new series called Pause and Rewind, which are books of photo-poems focused on different locations. The first of these celebrated my local village of Haxby, York. There are now 6 published in the series, with the most recent 'inFrance' (which includes some poems written in French !) launched in late October 2023. There are several more in the pipeline, and I'm continuing my research for them.
In 2021, I also revamped my original collection and re-launched it as Bird's Eye View, which led to an unexpected and most welcome recommendation by New Writing North. And in October 2021, I published my latest collection of lyrical narrative poems, Touchpoints. For the latter, I'd like to acknowledge my gratitude to the marvellous York Writers' Group for their ever-helpful analysis and support. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- DOUBLE LAUNCH IN 2023 !
In 2023, I've been working on my next instalments in the Pause and Rewind series, with the launch of Pause and Rewindin France completed at the end of October.
My newest venture is a set of poems of general appeal relating to railways, which is called Connections : Railway Verses and was launched on 7th November. This is an unconventional work in that it is a mixture of verse and a little social history.
A proponent of traditional humorous light verse and rhyme, influenced heavily by the quality, style and panache of the likes of Roger McGough, Ian McMillan and Brian Bilston, but trying to create things in my own way ...