Writing

I have always written since childhood but have only taken it more seriously for the last eight or so years. I was inspired to write poetry again after hearing a dedicated slot on BBC Radio Sheffield "Write on" run By Rony Robinson (a local broadcaster and playwright) and local poet, musician and teacher, Ray Hearne. This programme encouraged ordinary people to send in poems for broadcast and has been a fantastic showcase for local talent who would otherwise be unheard.  The programme very much espoused the view that anyone can express themselves through the written word whatever their background and academic ability.  It was a great opening for me, especially during the continuous emotional battering my family and myself underwent after the birth of our disabled daughter, Evie.  My poems have been broadcast over 50 times in the last few years.

Completed work

Storm of Loving - fifty poems about my daughter and family.

Click here to read some samples.

Works in progress

Books:

A Pilgrimage to the Sea - A long, book-length narrative poem comparing a family holiday to Northumberland with a disabled child to the pilgrimage of a family with a child with similar disabilities to Holy Island in medieval times.

Gifted but Unreliable - another collection of poems. Title inspired by my school rugby coach, who described me like that.

Ragarse - a novel chronicling the life of a callow youth and his confused struggle to see his life through a skin deep understanding of philosophy.

Radio plays:

I was there - the memories of a mute old man recalling that he was once somebody and “was there” at Jimi Hendrix’s legendary gig at Peter Stringfellow’s first club in Sheffield, the infamous Mojo.

Max Miller’s guitar - was the famous cockney comedian a blues man?  Whatever happened to his National Steel guitar?

The Plasterer – the journey of an artisan plasterer through the world of high quality cake decorating and back again

Pitch war - the battle of a professional musician in the 60s against his orchestra management’s accusation of playing out of tune, against the background of his continued struggle with the problems of his schizophrenic wife.

The Object - another day in a casualty department in the east end of London

BACK TO TOP