LAUNCHED!

"Rise" was well and truly launched on Sunday evening at the excellent venue of Alexander's Jazztheatre Bar, Rufus Court, Chester. Somewhere between 40-50 people came, a goodly amount of books were sold and the loveliest thing about the evening was that I had invited a number of friends to read with me. They did a wonderful job of it. Robbie Burton had just the right 'plummy' voice for a poem called Plum, Sheila Hamilton gave vigorous life to The Padstow Hobby Horse, Maureen Weldon did a fine reading of Fox, Ann Gardener gave an elegant reading of Conservatory and Annie Holland ( alias Stella the Stork) breathed life into both Roost and Almond St. Members of  my skilled workshop group The Poem Shed gave the poems they chose their very best and the audience expressed great appreciation of the mixed voices performance. Oh, and I read a few myself!
Today I feel absolutely flat. Steam-rollered in fact. Not surprisingly I feel like I don't want to produce another book for at least 10 years! (But even so,  there's one in progress....)