I have always had a soft spot for writing paper and writing pens for these are just some of the pleasures and privileges allowed for those engaged in writing Imagine my pleasure then when those fine people at Cult Pens introduced me to the Staedtler 308 Pigment Liner Pen and the Rhodia Head-Stapled Notepad No.18 A4 (210 x 297) Orange Plain The plain paper is super smooth entirely unobtrusive The pen glides as the finger would on a glass touchpad The combination of the effortless though large pen strokes over the easy flowing paper produced a form of writing without form that is without the...

This is a short collection of poems that were first written in 2006, when I was studying creative writing, in the University of Derby (Buxton). I was also at the very beginning of a new relationship, with my partner Kate who lived three hours drive from Buxton, in Louth, Lincolnshire. The poems celebrate the intimacy of our getting together, the easiness of my settling into Lincolnshire, as well as more reflective moments on the journey to and fro. The reworking of the poetry comes at a time when I have more time for my writing, having recently retired. It is also satisfying that very purpose...

The goal which I set myself, in Block 3 of the Monday Morning Writers' Cafe, was to write 12 songs. For inspiration I would sparingly use lines from the poems in The Gregory Poems 1985-1986, which I had taken with me to an OU summer school around that time. The writing of the words, for both the choruses and the verses, came fairly easy, that is until the singing part; I could not sing, every song I sang sounded exactly the same. The group said they thought that as poems they were indeed beautiful love poems, and that they cared for these recordings, but they knew not how I could turn them...