Welcome to my website!
Here you will find photographs, poems, a small selection of previously unpublished short fiction and a few examples of my illustrated poetry. If you would like to leave a message or a comment you can use the comment forms beneath each of the photos in the Gallery, the Contact link or the Guestbook.
I am married to writer and photographer Simon John Harvey.
Site last updated: 21-09-25
16 poems added to the Poetry & Prose pages
Featured poem changed
News:
One of my guest poets, Geoffrey Winch, has recently released his eighth collection of poetry: Encounters With Oscar & Other Sequences. Published by Q.Q. Press (Collections), and edited by Alan Carter *, these well researched and emotionally engaging poems highlight Oscar Wilde’s struggle to survive the unjust and destructive effect of his imprisonment in Reading Gaol, together with perhaps lesser-known details of his life that bring the character of the man into sympathetic focus. Additional content is equally well crafted in capturing events from Geoffrey’s childhood — wonderfully evocative in a natural, unforced style that paints vivid pictures of a bygone era.
Several extracts can be read on Geoffrey’s guest page, chosen as being representative of the high quality of this 40-page collection. A little gem of a book, cover price £7.50, copies can be obtained from the author: Geoffrey Winch, Dolphin Cottage, 65 Downview Road, Felpham, West Sussex. PO22 6JA England. Email: geoffreywinch@gmail.com.
* Alan Carter is the editor of the long-running Small Press poetry magazine Quantum Leap. This quarterly publication, current issue no. 108, November 2024, is urgently looking for new subscribers, regular competition entries and submissions of poetry to help keep it afloat during these difficult times. Run on traditional lines, QL is an accessible, entertaining and friendly magazine, with a faithful core of talented contributors. Keeping it going is very much a labour of love for the editor. Anyone interested in joining and helping to support this well-deserving survivor, please contact Alan by post: Q.Q. Press, York House, 15 Argyle Terrace, Rothesay, Isle of Bute, PA20 0BD Scotland U.K. enclosing (most importantly, with postage costs being so crippling) an s.a.e. for written details.
Featured poem:
TIME-HONOURED TRADITION
(With apologies to A.A. Milne)
They were changing guard at Buckingham Palace
and Donald Trump went down with Alice
he watched them marching up and down
with his forehead creased in a puzzled frown
then he asked her kindly to explain
the reason why (come sun or rain)
they stood outside to guard the royal palace
“It’s time-honoured tradition” Alice replied
“for there’s strictly no stalkers allowed inside —
they dragged off to the Tower those few who tried ...”
His mouth fell open, his eyes got wide
and Donald exclaimed “Well, bless my hide —
I’d best be careful not to lose my head!’
“No worries — who’d notice?” Alice said
***
There are a lot more poems and some short stories on the 'Poetry and Prose' and 'Poetry for Kids' pages. Just click the button on the main navigation bar.
Old News:
My friend and guest poet, Geoffrey Winch, has just released his sixth collection of poetry - Velocities and Drifts of Winds published by Dempsey and Windle on 1st September 2020
Copies available from the publisher's website: dempseyandwindle.com RRP £11.00
Three poems from this collection: Flesh, Venus in Kensington Gardens and Sense Agility can be read on Geoffrey's guest page and are fine examples of the quality of this 93-page collection.
***
HORACE’S ODES
AND THE
MYSTERY
OF DO-RE-MI
Recently, and via chance correspondence with its author, Stuart Lyons, I was encouraged to buy a copy of the above book. It is both an acclaimed work of translation (a Financial Times book choice in 1996) and an engrossing detective story tracing the roots of lyric verse and the invention of the Do-Re-Mi musical scale. For those who read and/or write lyrical poetry, and ‘hear’ the musicality of poetic phrasing, it provides, perhaps, the confirmation that there is an historically documented trail that links the disciplines. It is a history lesson for all poets everywhere, and reassuring in the sense that Horace himself predicted his achievements would long outlive him. For a Roman songwriter and entertainer who died in 8 BC to have his works translated and read more than two thousand years later, this must surely have exceeded his wildest dreams.
Published by Aris & Phillips, an imprint of Oxbow Books, Horace’s Odes and the Mystery of Do-Re-Mi is available through Amazon.
***
Friend and guest poet Geoffrey Winch has published his fourth collection of poetry.
Alchemy of Vision is published by Indigo Dreams and can be purchased through their website
www.indigodreams.co.uk, also available via Amazon, Waterstones and other online book retailers.
Anyone wishing to buy a signed copy direct from the author can contact him as follows:
Geoffrey Winch, Dolphin Cottage, 65 Downview Road, Felpham, West Sussex PO22 8JA
Payment: Cheque value £9.45 (includes P&P) payable to GD Winch, please.
Themed around the Arts, this collection encompasses a wide variety of subjects and interpretations: large and small, famous and lesser-known. Presented rather like a gallery of eclectic exhibits, there is a lot to look at and much to learn. And there's something for everyone to relate to, to think about, and to take away with them.
Four poems from the collection now appear on Geoffrey's guest page: Jazz Stripes by a Water's Edge; Home-Hunter; Negatively Charged; Standing Lion. These can only give a flavour of this so- carefully presented volume, with its iconic cover image. A truly class act.
***
My poem Hope's Flame (see here) appears in SOUL FEATHERS — a poetry anthology published in February 2011 by Indigo Dreams Publishing Ltd to aid the work of Macmillan Cancer Support.
The compilation contains the work of many internationally-known names including Carol Ann Duffy, Bob Dylan, Seamus Heaney, Maya Angelou, Benjamin Zephaniah, Leonard Cohen and Sharon Olds alongside both established and first time poets, all brought together in support of the cause.
Based on the theme of Hope, and taking inspiration from lines written by Emily Dickinson —
"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune -- without the words
And never stops at all”
— the poems in SOUL FEATHERS share, and compare, the common experience. The editors have done a superb job, and I am very proud to have a poem of mine in such good company.
SOUL FEATHERS is available from www.indigodreamsbookshop.com
Also from Central Books 0845 458 9910
ISBN 978-1-907401-36-7
Please buy this book, help Macmillan Cancer Support, and enjoy some wonderful poetry.
(Just click on the image below)
Random image
Here you will find photographs, poems, a small selection of previously unpublished short fiction and a few examples of my illustrated poetry. If you would like to leave a message or a comment you can use the comment forms beneath each of the photos in the Gallery, the Contact link or the Guestbook.
I am married to writer and photographer Simon John Harvey.
Site last updated: 21-09-25
16 poems added to the Poetry & Prose pages
Featured poem changed
News:
One of my guest poets, Geoffrey Winch, has recently released his eighth collection of poetry: Encounters With Oscar & Other Sequences. Published by Q.Q. Press (Collections), and edited by Alan Carter *, these well researched and emotionally engaging poems highlight Oscar Wilde’s struggle to survive the unjust and destructive effect of his imprisonment in Reading Gaol, together with perhaps lesser-known details of his life that bring the character of the man into sympathetic focus. Additional content is equally well crafted in capturing events from Geoffrey’s childhood — wonderfully evocative in a natural, unforced style that paints vivid pictures of a bygone era.
Several extracts can be read on Geoffrey’s guest page, chosen as being representative of the high quality of this 40-page collection. A little gem of a book, cover price £7.50, copies can be obtained from the author: Geoffrey Winch, Dolphin Cottage, 65 Downview Road, Felpham, West Sussex. PO22 6JA England. Email: geoffreywinch@gmail.com.
* Alan Carter is the editor of the long-running Small Press poetry magazine Quantum Leap. This quarterly publication, current issue no. 108, November 2024, is urgently looking for new subscribers, regular competition entries and submissions of poetry to help keep it afloat during these difficult times. Run on traditional lines, QL is an accessible, entertaining and friendly magazine, with a faithful core of talented contributors. Keeping it going is very much a labour of love for the editor. Anyone interested in joining and helping to support this well-deserving survivor, please contact Alan by post: Q.Q. Press, York House, 15 Argyle Terrace, Rothesay, Isle of Bute, PA20 0BD Scotland U.K. enclosing (most importantly, with postage costs being so crippling) an s.a.e. for written details.
Featured poem:
TIME-HONOURED TRADITION
(With apologies to A.A. Milne)
They were changing guard at Buckingham Palace
and Donald Trump went down with Alice
he watched them marching up and down
with his forehead creased in a puzzled frown
then he asked her kindly to explain
the reason why (come sun or rain)
they stood outside to guard the royal palace
“It’s time-honoured tradition” Alice replied
“for there’s strictly no stalkers allowed inside —
they dragged off to the Tower those few who tried ...”
His mouth fell open, his eyes got wide
and Donald exclaimed “Well, bless my hide —
I’d best be careful not to lose my head!’
“No worries — who’d notice?” Alice said
***
There are a lot more poems and some short stories on the 'Poetry and Prose' and 'Poetry for Kids' pages. Just click the button on the main navigation bar.
Old News:
My friend and guest poet, Geoffrey Winch, has just released his sixth collection of poetry - Velocities and Drifts of Winds published by Dempsey and Windle on 1st September 2020
Copies available from the publisher's website: dempseyandwindle.com RRP £11.00
Three poems from this collection: Flesh, Venus in Kensington Gardens and Sense Agility can be read on Geoffrey's guest page and are fine examples of the quality of this 93-page collection.
***
HORACE’S ODES
AND THE
MYSTERY
OF DO-RE-MI
Recently, and via chance correspondence with its author, Stuart Lyons, I was encouraged to buy a copy of the above book. It is both an acclaimed work of translation (a Financial Times book choice in 1996) and an engrossing detective story tracing the roots of lyric verse and the invention of the Do-Re-Mi musical scale. For those who read and/or write lyrical poetry, and ‘hear’ the musicality of poetic phrasing, it provides, perhaps, the confirmation that there is an historically documented trail that links the disciplines. It is a history lesson for all poets everywhere, and reassuring in the sense that Horace himself predicted his achievements would long outlive him. For a Roman songwriter and entertainer who died in 8 BC to have his works translated and read more than two thousand years later, this must surely have exceeded his wildest dreams.
Published by Aris & Phillips, an imprint of Oxbow Books, Horace’s Odes and the Mystery of Do-Re-Mi is available through Amazon.
***
Friend and guest poet Geoffrey Winch has published his fourth collection of poetry.
Alchemy of Vision is published by Indigo Dreams and can be purchased through their website
www.indigodreams.co.uk, also available via Amazon, Waterstones and other online book retailers.
Anyone wishing to buy a signed copy direct from the author can contact him as follows:
Geoffrey Winch, Dolphin Cottage, 65 Downview Road, Felpham, West Sussex PO22 8JA
Payment: Cheque value £9.45 (includes P&P) payable to GD Winch, please.
Themed around the Arts, this collection encompasses a wide variety of subjects and interpretations: large and small, famous and lesser-known. Presented rather like a gallery of eclectic exhibits, there is a lot to look at and much to learn. And there's something for everyone to relate to, to think about, and to take away with them.
Four poems from the collection now appear on Geoffrey's guest page: Jazz Stripes by a Water's Edge; Home-Hunter; Negatively Charged; Standing Lion. These can only give a flavour of this so- carefully presented volume, with its iconic cover image. A truly class act.
***
My poem Hope's Flame (see here) appears in SOUL FEATHERS — a poetry anthology published in February 2011 by Indigo Dreams Publishing Ltd to aid the work of Macmillan Cancer Support.
The compilation contains the work of many internationally-known names including Carol Ann Duffy, Bob Dylan, Seamus Heaney, Maya Angelou, Benjamin Zephaniah, Leonard Cohen and Sharon Olds alongside both established and first time poets, all brought together in support of the cause.
Based on the theme of Hope, and taking inspiration from lines written by Emily Dickinson —
"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune -- without the words
And never stops at all”
— the poems in SOUL FEATHERS share, and compare, the common experience. The editors have done a superb job, and I am very proud to have a poem of mine in such good company.
SOUL FEATHERS is available from www.indigodreamsbookshop.com
Also from Central Books 0845 458 9910
ISBN 978-1-907401-36-7
Please buy this book, help Macmillan Cancer Support, and enjoy some wonderful poetry.
(Just click on the image below)
Random image
