top of page

I have read on five occasions at the Cheltenham Literature Festival as part of the Gloucestershire Writers' Network poetry and prose competitions. I have also read on a number of occasions at the Cheltenham Poetry Festival. In 2020 (a virtual and virtuous pandemic event) I launched my collection Home there, alongside Howard and Marilyn Timms launching their latest joint collection Deciphering the Maze. In September 2022 I was privileged to read poems from my latest collection Uncharted there, alongside well-known fellow Gloucestershire poets Anna Saunders, David Clarke and Duncan Forbes. My next Cheltenham Poetry Festival reading is scheduled for 20th April this year (2024), when I shall be reading alongside fellow Gloucestershire poet Iris Anne Lewis and Isabel Galleymore, a poet who holds the Associate Professorship in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham.   The venue for our reading is the Friends' Meeting House, Cheltenham, and it starts at 11.00am.

In July 2023 I read alongside fellow Malvern poet Kim Taplin at the Malvern Book Co-op.  This event launched Kim's latest collection Ebb & Flow (Graffiti Books, 2023).  I read poems from my Uncharted collection, and all proceeds from sale of our books were donated to the Malvern Book Co-op's Outreach charity, supporting disadvantaged members of our community with books and literacy skills.

With local writer and musician Nick John I formed the literary duo WritersBlock, and we jointly presented a number of café and bookshop performances, including many appearances at the Peppers Arts cafe in central Gloucester.

 

Reading one's work to supportively critical groups is important to all of us in our artistic development. For ten years I have been a member of the Cirencester based Catchword writing group, which comprises poets, novelists, short story writers and memoirists.

 

I am also a past member of the Cheltenham Poetry Society. Since moving to Malvern in early 2019 I have become a member of the Spoken Word writers and storytellers group which meets regularly at various venues around the town. In November 2023 I read alongside a group of Spoken Word poets ( John Bradshaw, Francis Charters and Clifford Liles) at the Malvern Book Co-op.  Further Spoken Word/Malvern Book Co-op joint ventures are scheduled ( including sponsorship of a major Malvern display of Spoken Word poetry with accompanying photographs and paintings).

bottom of page