Hello, and thank you for visiting my site. I hope that you'll return often and always find something of interest about my world and what inspires me to pick up a pen. (This is a figure of speech, unfortunately. My handwriting is terrible!) Here's what I've been up to recently...

5th Ripon Poetry Festival

What a packed few days these have been! 

Thursday evening saw me at Ripon Library to take part in the open mic night with which this year’s festival began. Hosted by flamboyant Newcastle poet Donald Jenkins, it was well attended and very entertaining.

 

On Saturday evening I was at the Arts Hub reading ‘Separate but Equal’, my contribution to this year’s anthology. Inspired by many visits to Fountains Abbey, it reflects the busy life of one of the lay brothers without whose support the monks would have been unable to spend their lives in prayer and copying manuscripts. Also in the photo above are other members of Ripon Writers’ Group and/or Write-On! Ripon.

This afternoon I was at Thorp Prebend for the annual showcase of Ripon Writers’ Group. Our numbers were somewhat depleted by other commitments and illness, but it went well. Caroline (on the left of the photo) joined us from the audience to read one of her poems.

Afterwards, I attended the launch of Bradford poet Jim Greenhalf’s latest collection, ‘Dummy’, and finally the posthumous launch of David McAndrew’s ‘Collected Works’. David was a member of RWG for many years and is still very much missed.

25 September, 2022 - Make the first comment on this story

Comment on this story

Basic HTML is allowed in comments. Avatars provided by Gravatar. Some posts may not appear immediately, and need to be manually approved - sorry for any delay.

Check Out My eBooks
Supporting artists, or ‘extras’ as they’re more commonly known, are the unsung heroes of television and film. Maggie Cobbett recalls the ups and downs of twenty years of ‘blending into the background’.
A working holiday in France for so little? “It sounds too good to be true,” says Daisy’s mother, but her warning falls on deaf ears.
The 20th century has just dawned when David is apprenticed to a Yorkshire coal miner. But what of the younger brothers and sister he has been forced to leave behind in their London workhouse? Will he ever see them again?
Blog Categories
Links
Live From Twitter