Welcome to my website
I am a poet, performer and teacher. Born and brought up in South Wales, I came to work in Wolverhampton and liked it so much, I stayed.
Poetry has been a necessary part of my life for almost as long as I can remember. The first poem I learned by heart because I liked it, not because it was set for homework was Walter de la Mare’s The Listeners, and my own first poems were published in the school magazine, ‘The Dragon’. After school and university, I became a teacher, like most of my family. Early in my career, I taught English in the school where I had been a pupil and one of my duties was to edit ‘The Dragon’.
I taught in a series of schools and colleges, spending more time reading than writing, then, at the turn of the new century it seemed a good time to stop talking about being a writer and start doing something about it. I applied for Arts Council funding and asked three poets - Simon Fletcher, Roz Goddard and Julie Boden - to be my mentors. From them I learned more about the craft of writing and began to have my poems published in magazines other than ‘The Dragon’.
I like to work collaboratively, and am a member of ImageTextImage, a group of writers and artists based in the Wolverhampton. We work in parallel to create art and poetry which we exhibit and perform. I also perform my work at spoken word events and to groups and clubs. Making use of my teaching skills, I facilitate Creative Writing workshops.
You can find details of exhibitions, readings and workshops on my blog, along with my ‘poem of the month’.
My poems are inspired by mysteries, oddities, unusual details and scraps of memory. I like to observe, record and imagine the goings-on behind the curtains of people’s lives. Bright Morning, my first collection of poetry was published by Offa's Press in May 2010: visit www.offaspress.co.uk if you want to buy a copy.
I am available for poetry readings and talks, and to facilitate poetry-writing workshops.