First of all

September 2026

First of All

Some time ago I used to put a monthly blog here on my site.  It rather fell by the wayside, due to pressure on time and so on.  However, I’m told it was a welcome aspect.  So here we go again.   There will be fewer posts, though; but still at regular intervals.  This one, as you can see is September 2026.  The next one I plan for January 2027; and then, hopefully at quarterly intervals.

Seeing With My Dog

The production of my play Seeing With My Dog is the most significant event for me over the past few months.  In May we presented 5 showcase shows.  The play was based on the verse diary I kept as I learned to work and walk with a guide dog.

It’s a verse play.  Wild, funny, sad, dark and ground-breaking.  Audiences were amazed that a play that had at its centre, grieving (for loss of sight, loss of independence, loss of identity, and loss of a husband) could be so hugely funny.  There are sad moments, of course, too.  Audience responses were terrific.  Much of the build up and response can be found on Instagram.  #SeeingWithMyDog.

We are hoping to tour the play in 2027.  This has given me a valuable chance to create a new version of the play;           I take into account thoughts occurring during the showcases.  This has been exciting and much more difficult than I had imagined.

For instance, there will now be an interval.  But you can’t just break the play.  Putting in an interval needed changes to three scenes and the insertion of a tiny new scene to ensure a ‘cliffhanger’.

Many of the other changes were needed as we realised not all the information was given at the right place and at the right time.  Each single change caused other changes and so on.

In addition, there is a chance, in the light of having seen the play in front of audiences, to improve lines, deepen moments of introspection and to write funnier jokes.

The play was much praised by audiences; it’s even better now.

Other Writing

I’m working on several short stories.  One involved a site visit to a most interesting sandstone quarry near Hagley.  I want to set a murder story there – Let Me Feed Your Fishes.

I recently completed the Arvon 5 day Writing Challenge; I think we should all, always, be up for a challenge.  It was excellent; I’m now well on the way to completing a new story – Lizzie and the Ultra Man.  I’ve never been quite so surprised at something I, myself, have written myself.

The challenge was created by Claire Fuller.  At one stage during the 5 days her guidance is ‘Make sure all your information is in the right place at the right time.’  It is always good to have something re-pointed out (see above in Seeing With My Dog).

I continue writing poetry. Two recent ones are on the site here.  Mother’s Ginger Cake is a response to ingredients in shop-bought food.  Final Race of the Day is a celebration of English eccentricity.

One of the on-going issues around being a writer is both a sense of feeling alone and how do you obtain good criticism.

I’m a member of the long-established Cannon Poets, breakout groups and workshops at monthly meetings sustain a feeling of connection with welcome discussion of works in progress.  For fiction I am a member of the recently formed Balsall Heath Bohemians Fiction Group.

Reading

I’ve kept up my resolution to read everything I am going to review at Stratford (RSC) if I don’t know it already.  So I’ve recently read Middlemarch (George Elliot) and Three Musketeers (Alexandre Dumas).  I’m so pleased to have read these great works, both of which gripped me and surprised me.  I’ve most recently read Claire Fuller’s (see above) Unlevel Ground.  At present I’m thoroughly enjoying Robert Harris’s Cicero Trilogy.  I’ve read some of his novels before; what a fantastic storyteller he is

ReviewsGate

I continue to edit ReviewsGate , the reviews site which I started in 2002.  There are now 8 regular reviewers across the country and we publish around 10 reviews a week.  We have recently reviewed two established youth theatres, Birmingham Youth Theatre and the National Youth Music Theatre Group.

If any of you feel you have the skills and knowledge to review performances in any of their many forms, contact us on Reveiws@ReviewsGate.co.uk.

Finally

I’m increasingly coming to the conclusion that the creativity in writing comes in the act of writing itself.  I’m thinking of coining the word ‘Criting’.  Not sure if that works, though.

I’ll be in touch in January 2027.  In the meantime, be happy, be creative.  Keep writing!