Writer
I’m a writer, musician, broadcaster, and writing organiser based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK, Europe. Much of my work is collaborative: with communities, with other musicians and writers, artists, teachers and academics. But when I need time on my own, I sit on a bench in the park and write poems.
I’ve been writing professionally for over thirty years. Work I’ve written, or helped to create, has been produced in theatres, cathedrals, museums, arts centres, libraries, day centres, hospitals, prisons, streets, schools, on television and the radio.
Just now I’ve had a busy autumn: producing and performing in Unsung Sports 2023, curating the 7th Writing On Air Festival with the Chapel FM team and presenting the 4th season of Love The Words podcasts.
In 2024, I’m looking forward to finishing my 3rd poetry collection, provisionally entitled Passing Place, producing fresh projects at Chapel FM, and working up a suite of new songs with Schwa.
Nice things people have said
“Threshold (2017 album by Schwa): Varied and finely executed arrangements; crafted, thoughtful lyrics, and the northern ambience of the whole thing... Listening to it in Switzerland, this feels to me like a particular character of the record.”
- Merz
“Frisk (poetry collection 2021): These poems are in love with life, from a poet acutely attuned to its joys and sadnesses’.
- Antony Dunn
“Streetbeat (play produced by Remould Theatre Company): a fascinating insight into police life.”
— The Guardian
“Boys who thought they were too cool to write are now doing it. They have ideas, use their imaginations, and have learned how to link stories and get their ideas on paper.”
— Teacher, Rawthorpe Junior School, Huddersfield
“Now We Are Schwa (2015 album by Schwa): vivid lyricism and authentic vocals blended with fantastic, eclectic arrangements.”