The poet & the collections
I am a Glasgow based writer and poet. Born in Cheshire, my working life in Yorkshire was spent in the arts as a curator, critic, gallery owner and writer, before moving to Scotland in 2006.
I have published four collections of poems and make handmade books of collections and individual poems. Since 2009 I have exhibited twice at By Leaves We Live at the Scottish Poetry Library, at Scottish Pamphlet Poetry events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Stanza and at the Glasgow International Artists Bookfair. In 2010 I read at the Ilkley Literature Festival, and again in 2011 when I presented a two-woman show based on A KINDNESS OF WOMEN with my daughter, actress Cathy Sara, since reprised in Essex in 2012.
A KINDNESS OF WOMEN celebrates six decades of a woman’s experience and reflects on the way that women value kindness as much as talent and generosity, jam-making and motherhood as much as success in any public field. Memories of girlhood and the inspiration of women in art and history colour its pages.
The genesis of SOME CONSEQUENCES OF SAYING YES was a brief encounter between two married people in 1979: their first and last meeting for 25 years. Then he (a Scot) set out to find her (me in Yorkshire); I was found and in 2006 I married him and came to live in Scotland. These poems describe and celebrate some aspects of the ultimate consequences of that long-ago saying “Yes” and the collection was shortlisted for the Callum Macdonal Memorial Award 2012.
The third collection in the trilogy, COMINGS AND GOINGS, is not only about stimulating travels in Europe and Scotland and its islands but a daily life which can be seen to be full of different kinds of arrivals and departures. Moving house, bereavement, observations of the natural world, musings on art and literature. are all connected via the mind of the poet in these strong poems.
All designed by Den Stubbs, some hand stitched.
SEE THE NEWS PAGE FOR DATES OF READINGS
Click the images to see a poem from each collection:
