My Journey So Far!

I was born in Minster, on the Isle of Sheppey, in 1972. My Dad worked for the electricity board and because of his job (first as an electrician and later teaching apprentice electricians) we moved to a few different villages along the Kent coast.

As a child, I was clumsy and never felt that I was that much good at anything. I loved books but had difficulty reading them! My favourite book at the time was Mr.Bump.

I have great memories of one of my primary school teachers reading Roald Dahl’s James and The Giant Peach. But sometimes at school, I found it difficult to concentrate. I remember being sent to the hospital for a hearing test because my teacher thought I might have a problem with my hearing - but my ears were completely fine, I just wasn’t paying any attention! (Later, after school and University I was diagnosed with specific learning difficulties - a mixture of dyslexia/ADHD.)

I loved words but found it difficult to organise my thoughts and feelings. I see now how writing poems helps me to master language and make sense of my emotions and my experiences.

One thing that I was consistently passionate about throughout my childhood was theatre. I still have the wooden mini-theatre my Dad built me that I used to put on plays for my family every Christmas. I think that mini-theatre played a huge part in teaching me to read, write and to create, in a way that has sustained me throughout my life.

My first paid writing job was reporting on Deal Town Football Club matches for the local paper. I was still at school then, and I got paid £10 a game. I was offered the job after sending in reports on bike races for the local cycling club I rode with. But I turned down the chance to train as a journalist, and went up north to Bradford where I did a course in Social Studies and got a part-time job as a care worker.

I started writing poetry as a teenager. I kept a secret notebook, hidden under the bed. One day a friend of mine found it and, embarrassed by my writing, I chased him down the road to wrestle it back. He read a few verses anyway but he told me they weren’t as bad as he’d imagined!

It was while I was a student in Bradford, that I first came across Performance Poetry. I saw a poet called Attila the Stockbroker performing in a local café. From then on, I realised that there was a way I could combine my love of performance with all the poetry I had been secretly writing.

I moved to Hastings for work and while I was in Hastings there I found an open-mike poetry night in a pub called “Other Words”. I turned up with my latest poem. I was very nervous but it went so well that the organiser asked me if I would host the event next time. I ended up hosting this event every month for six years. I met so many brilliant people on those evenings, people who showed me that poetry is as diverse as humanity, and that anybody who has something to say can write a poem.

I lived in Brighton for a while and got involved in running poetry events with a whole new bunch of friends. In 1998, I wrote my first spoken word theatre show, finding a way to combine my poetic writing with drama and enabling me to tell a story while acting out all of the parts.

I first got invited to a primary school to perform and run workshops by teacher and artist Kay Walton. At this point I hadn’t written any poems specifically for children but the audience still seemed to enjoy my performance. I absolutely loved the energy and enthusiasm of the children (and the teachers!) and vowed to go away and create more child-friendly work.

In Brighton, I made my living sometimes as a poet, sometimes as a care worker and sometimes an actor/stage manager for the You, Me and Everybody Theatre Company who worked with actors with learning disabilities. I also ran a monthly cabaret night called Don’t Feed The Poets! Meanwhile in Hastings, I put on a literature festival (Word About Town), with one of my friends (John Knowles, now a playwright), hosting many of my literary heroes.

These days I live in Southend, Essex, with my wife and our three children. Over the last decade, I’ve earned a living specialising in visiting schools and libraries and creating work for families and young audiences, including a new spoken word show every year since 2010, many professionally produced by the brilliant Half Moon Theatre.

The first poem I had published had no words in. I wrote a poem called The Lost Poem- and that was the whole poem, just the title and a lot of empty space! It was published in a book called “The Secret Life of Pants”, edited by Roger Stevens. All the other poems I sent in (those that had lots of words) didn’t get chosen! Still, my three word title earned me £30. Not bad!

Eventually I had my first book of poems published. The Dictionary of Dads (Otter-Barry books) came out in 2017. There’s been lots of good feedback from reviewers and readers and it is now on its second print run. The follow-up The Magic of Mums, also with Otter-Barry and illustrated by Steve Wells, was published in February 2020.

I’ve always loved this quote from Adrian Mitchell - “Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people”. As well as writing books and touring my shows, I love visiting schools, libraries, residential homes and community centres, encouraging others to write, perform and have fun with words.