It's interesting to note how many people have come 'late to writing' here. I am another. School was the most unimaginative environment ever so I either spent my formative years being lambasted for daydreaming or avoiding all things booky, seeing how painful it all was for my writer dad.

Eventually, in 2003 it seemed a good idea to put an education where one should be and I fell instantly for poetry on an Access to HE course.  Uni lasted a whole seven weeks. The writer in residence told me my stuff was good and the penny dropped; I should write. Soon afterwards a first poem was published and I went after comedy, selling bits here and there. I still sit and daydream through windows, only now people pay me to do it while I tune their pianos. Better still, I have found other poets! Hello. 

Although I have ‛dabbledʼ in poetry for many years, it wasnʼt until I got together with two local poets for critical sessions ‛The Friday Morning Poetry Clubʼ, that I began to write seriously. Sensible folk, they finally urged me towards Poetry Aloud and since that first meeting in April 2010, my writing has evolved from an interest into a passion.

I have always had a creative instinct, but it wasnʼt until a superb teacher (at night classes in 1989) introduced me to Wilfred Owen that I realised that poetry was the creative medium Iʼd been looking for. After many false starts, here I am writing regularly and reading my efforts to alive audience. Often, they are still alive when Iʼve finished.

Ideas drift by like pollen on the wind. Some you let fly past, someone elseʼs territory. Others you catch, they take hold and flourish. I write about anything which interests me. Much about dementia (Alzheimerʼs has my mother), the natural world (amateur ornithologist) and sometimes music (ageing Indie Rock fan).

I like to be consumed by ideas. Writing poetry is a feeling like no other I know.

I was introduced to poetry via School Poetry Reading Competitions. I then started translating verse both out of, and into, Greek and Latin. At University my major dissertation was on Horace. Apart from the Classics, my reading was limited to the usuals, Tennyson, Keats, Plath etc. I was only encouraged to write my own poetry at Dukes Priory Psychiatric Hospital, where I spent 15 months. I have written verse regularly since and try to explore new styles. My natural style tends to be intense and emotional, but I can lighten up.... honest! I have had 2 books published - sadly, not on poetry yet.