INK SWEAT AND TEARS

James Naiden, regular reviewer for the website ink sweat and tears has written a review of both of my books "The Plucking Shed" and "Rise"  (Cinnamon Press, 2010 and 2013) in which he most generously refers to me as a "significant poet, living in non-London England".

It's totally joyful to be described as a significant poet, yet I am intrigued by the non-London bit. I often hear other poets say you have to be in or get to London to make any impression on the poetry world but is this really true? There are plenty of poets living outside the metropolis who are hugely significant, surely? Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, Bristol, Birmingham,  Sheffield, all good, active centres of poetry. I'm not far from Ledburyand Much Wenlock which both host excellent poetry festivals. And while I have given several readings in London I don't feel that's made any difference to my poetic life except, importantly,  for meeting and making some lovely new friends in the poetry world!

Besides I was born in London, and for some reason my parents couldn't wait to get out of it when I was about 2.... And I wouldn't be in a rush to go back to it. (Well, not unless I could live in Ladbroke Grove, Bloomsbury, or Highgate - all completely out of the question...!)