There was a writing competition, sometimes back in the 1980s, out of the BBC, and a friend and I decided we would have a go. We set each other a modest challenge to get us going – she was to write a synopsis for a story, I was to write a synopsis for a radio play. In the event, she wrote nothing, and I came up with an idea for a musical radio play in which the characters were purely voices and musical instruments. My friend then challenged me to write a song for this musical play which included the words ‘sunsets’ and ‘kites’. The resulting song expresses the longing for all that would be lost if the nuclear war we all feared at the time ever happened.
That musical play is now a 15 minute script tucked away in a folder somewhere. The song has been sung many times at concerts, Open Mics, even recorded – you can find it on Spotify, Amazon Music and all the major streaming services.
My first poetry collection, also called ‘Sunsets & Kites’ covers a lot of ground, from before and after those heady days in the 1980s when the worst fate humanity thought it had to face was a nuclear winter. How times have changed. I’ve included some song lyrics and a couple of essays – and believe me, it’s not all strictly autobiographical…
Both print and eBook versions are available on Amazon (UK, USA and AU). I hope you like it!
