Poetry is like taking a journey, sometimes quick and simple, moving just around the corner but it can also be a long twisty adventure that takes the traveller to the distant reaches of the universe chasing and seeking that brightest star which always seems just out of reach.

The poems, many autobiographical, some long, some short are as always written from the heart of a contemporary teller of tales; stories to make you smile or stir an emotion in the light and darkness of an ever unfolding world. Some of the poems recall events past and present as in “Nagasaki” or “Nightingales Lamp” which are visually uncomfortable and shocking but then as in “Kenny’s Tank” offer us tangible glimpses of harmony and understanding. So among all the many ghosts and storms that appear throughout the book these chronicles are tempered by other saga’s about the mystical, natural and sensual world.

Our English summers seem to trigger short but intense heatwaves set against the drama of ever unfolding and chaotic unrest and uneasiness. These climatically charged bursts of hot weather brought back to mind those three crazy scorching months of 1976 and as a direct result “Summer of Ladybirds” was composed. And still nothing has really changed or moved on since then and the world is still struggling to find peace and love among the turmoil.

About having a rebel nature; it may be shown in how a person acts, campaigns and stands up for what they believe in or it can be in subtle ways working in the niggling things of everyday life but beyond all this, there is the power within everyone to help change the world and make it a bit better. It’s when two bohemian rebel hearts collide together - that’s when it gets exciting.

And so just when you think you’ve reached the very end of the book … that’s when another journey begins.

and thank you

To Suzanne Vega and Anaïs Mitchell, composers of the books’ prologue and epilogue and to Roger Hodgson founder member and the voice of Supertramp for his “Time Waits For No One” which features as an intermission sequence.