I wrote these poems at various times during my life, beginning when I bought my first typewriter from a friend before I went off to college. Many were written in Cambridge, England, in the 1960's. After a visit to my maternal ancestors' home town of Whitby, Yorkshire, I wrote The Romance of Beggar's Bridge, the central work in this collection. We visited again in 1997, with my young son, when I had discovered that one pair of my 3rd great-grandparents had been married nearby in Egton Church - the cover photos are from that visit, when the river Esk was in full flood, giving me a real insight...