My Blog
Manchester Women: Past and Future (poem)
Manchester Women – Past and Future Queen Bees of the dusty, backstreet Hives of tight-knit terraced houses, Workers amidst the frantic buzz Of tireless factory machines; Holding up the living fabric Of industry, family nests, And bosoms in flowered pinnies; Gossiping...
Ash Wednesday Nostalgia
This image from an article in 'The Express' online today brought back memories of my Roman Catholic childhood; of queuing up, offering our little foreheads to receive that dusty, purplish smudge across and down, unaffected by the sombre reminder of our own mortality...
Homework: #ClimateChange (Eco poem)
Would you be willing to take a pledge, Sprout beans and grow your own veg? Scorn fancy packaging - all that crap - Drink fresh water from a tap? Put your back into it, dig the soil, Read food labels, shun palm oil? Eat soya instead of juicy beef, Embrace the nut, seed...
Caught In The Web?
The headlines in a popular tabloid on a supermarket rack caught my eye this week. Are young people becoming addicted to the internet? Another news article referred to the internet as a 'digital drug.' As with each of my novels, the plot is usually driven by...
Fall Descending – a poem
A recent walk in the nearby quarry with my dog reminded me of this poem I wrote last November, on a wetter, windier day. Fall Descending Young silver birch; leaves Small copper butterflies pinned Onto its branches. Behind, the quarry cliff drips,...
Cover Story – Stalkbook Setting
"I don't see why it was necessary to disguise what is obviously Manchester as "Mancaster" - quote from an otherwise glowing review of my new novel(la), 'Stalkbook.' Fair point. My reason for doing that was to allow me some creative licence with the geography and the...