Hello and welcome to my blog…
For those who have met me before, Hello again! Lovely to see you.
I have become a ‘woman of a certain age’ beloved by Life Assurance Companies whose greatest wish would be to see me into my grave at my earliest convenience, but don’t let that cloud your judgement. My inner child is very much alive and kicking and the professional me with a proper job has a bottomless pit of life experiences that crawl into the crevices in my writing.
I write because I want to and have been doing it for decades with tolerable reviews.
Less of a poet and fiction writer these days, I write about the things that interest me, social history and what makes us humans, human. Every stone has a fascinating world beneath it just waiting to be explored.
Here’s a selection of my blogs about people, places & things…
A Foray into The World of Damon Runyon
If you had asked me not so long ago who Damon Runyon was I would have shrugged and made a wild guess that it was perhaps some long lost breed of apple. The name has an of aura of all that is good and comforting about the past; of something well worth the effort of...
The French v The English – All the same under the skin
For a Brit abroad it is true that Normandy in Northern France does feel familiar not only with England, but also rural Ireland. Geographically of course the land is ever likely to be similar. In gobal terms Southern England, Eire and Northern France are close...
Normandy, from Asterix to the Holy Land
Normandy, a region of northern France, has a long history often closely entwined with that of England, though we have managed to remain determindly seperate. Modern Normandy is largely agricultural and owes its prosperity to horse breeding, tourism and the production...
Here’s a selection of my poems…
Sun and Moon
I sit between you, my sun and my moon A world basking in silence, in the warmth of your glow. Surveying my surroundings forever changed and still the same, while you occupy your universe, my dawn and my dusk. Two halves that made me whole moving within me and around...
Grass Roots
The sky is cast in winter grey, the forum set on a lesser stadium. A sodden field for thwarted dreamers to become peacocks for the duration. Exhibiting colours in a pointless display, chasing a goal they will never achieve. Defying with gusto their beer bellied fate...
Free Wheelers
In the balmy summer of ‘67 every kid on Concrete Canyon with hammer, nails and imagination was on the look out of for wheels. No stone unturned for a bit of wood, clothes lines reduced by a likely foot to make a makeshift killing machine. A beast to beat the need for...
Here’s a selection of my stories…
Tommy Two Toes
It is a nice day; one of those days when even the cab drivers are apt to smile and a guy can traverse the sidewalks of the Apple, and feel good because the sun is shining and the citizens are not depressed beyond the normal. I am minding my own business on my way to...
Christmas Lights
“The night was so incredibly beautiful, but all I saw were ruby drops in the snow and the broken wings of the murdered angel and I was scared, so scared…” His words trailed off as he sat staring at his fingers as if they were somehow unfamiliar. No longer aware...
The Monster in the Closet
George leant back in the driving seat and flexed his neck to ease the stiffness creeping toward his shoulders, the tarmac slipping smoothly beneath him to become an ever-growing expanse of distance framed by the rear window of his ageing Ford Mondeo. "Thanks for...
Here’s a selection of my travel blogs…
Ireland (Part 2) – County Wexford. Sun, Sea and Diversity
May ushers in the fine weather and marks our fifth visit to the Republic of Ireland. One day we plan to visit the North where the scars of the Troubles are more visible and, for the generation that lived through them, still speaking loud from the static mouths of...
Normandy. Fallouts and Fairytales
Bathed in glorious May Day sunshine, we set off for the long drive from the barren moors and frequent rain of Greater Manchester to pick up the Ferry and begin a much needed holiday. In previous years we headed for Holyhead to cross the Irish Sea to visit the...
Ireland (Part 1) – Where the people wave at strangers
It’s not surprising that Guinness has come to represent the darkly enigmatic country that is Ireland. And, no I’m not sidestepping the interestingly frothy top, through which you have to delve to get the true sense of all that rich darkness. The Irish have a...