Tag: the mayday diaries

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The Mayday Diaries cover art: what’s it all about?

Please click on the image for a bit of fun!

Yes I know, the picture is a bit strange. Then again, perhaps you haven’t really looked at it? Understandable. Poetry books sometimes have interesting cover art, but the poet rarely has much say in it. Thanks to being published by a small press with an open attitude, I persuaded them to use a photo I’d created myself.

I took this photo in my living room (the colour on the wall is French Grey from Farrow and Ball, in case you’re interested!) My idea was to assemble a ‘still life’ in the Dutch tradition of ‘vanitas’ paintings. ‘Vanitas’ being the genre of still life that is supposed to suggest the brevity of one’s time on this planet, and the futility of everything we strive for, since it has to end in death.

This isn’t as gloomy as it sounds, trust me! What I gathered together were pieces of memorabilia, items referenced in the poems, signifiiers… all arranged in such a way that I hope engenders a feeling of a life lived, in all its messiness, chaos, mistakes, serendipity, quirkiness and yes, beauty.

If you look closely you’ll see a Korean Coca-Cola bottle (I used to collect Coca-Cola cans and bottles from all the countries I visited through work!), burnt-out candles and a half-drunk glass of wine (I’ll leave you to decide on the significance of these), rotting fruit (=decay) and a fox’s skull (mostly in pieces). Skulls, and timepieces, are very common ‘vanitas’ tropes. There’s no clock or watch here, but I have included pages from work diaries, a (laminated) production timeline (we had a new product range every quarter), my old Filofax from the 1990s, even some pages from one of my teenage diaries. There are also photos of me as a Brownie and later as a jaded employee posing for yet another visa application. And let’s not gloss over the blister pack of paracetamol. Pills, childhood terrors, stupid work schedules and endless long-haul trips are well represented in the poems. As well as the internet, computers, magnolia flowers (artificial in this case) and ‘burning the candle at both ends’.

I hope this gives you a richer insight into the cover image, and perhaps more ways into the poems.

In case you’ve missed it, I’ve posted some notes on the poems here, and here you can listen to me reading a few of them.

More about The Mayday Diaries, and how to buy it, here.

 

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Free Verse, book launch & readings

Launch of The Mayday Diaries, Lewes 9th May 2025

The book is well and truly launched. A month or so ago at Free Verse, the poetry book fair in London, I was helping out Jeremy Page on the Frogmore Press table while at the same time handing out promotional postcards – a bit cheeky, but Jeremy was OK with it. It was a shame not to have the actual book to sell but hey ho.

Free Verse was fun. The publisher tables were so closely packed we were virtually on each other’s laps. We were sandwiched between Caroline Davies of  Green Bottle Press and Liz Kendall of The Edge of the Woods. The nature of the event means you do a lot of waving and not-quite-conversations with people, nevertheless it’s very nice to see old acquaintances and meet new ones. I crossed paths briefly with Claire Booker, Paul Stephenson, Julia Bird, Caroline Clark, Tammy Yoseloff, Isabelle Baafi (after interviewing her recently for the podcast) and Kate Noakes…and met for the first time a number of small publishers including Kym Deyn of The Braag and Carmen et Error and Julie Hogg of Blueprint Press. I liked the fact that magazines were represented alongside book publishers.

A few people came up to me and said how much they enjoyed Planet Poetry, including one of our regular supporters Richard Chadburn, who promptly got his local bookshop to order my book! It’s always gratifying to know we have listeners, and fans even – tee hee.

So The Mayday Diaries – yep, we had a lovely launch event in Lewes with both poet and non-poet friends and family. I say ‘we’, because I had alongside me my ol’ poet pal Peter Kenny and also my mentor and Telltale Press Associate Editor Catherine Smith, who emceed. Peter read some poems, including those in his recent pamphlet Snow (Hedgehog Press). Snow is a collaboration with artist Palo Almond, who came to the launch with two of her paintings and spoke about how the pamphlet illustrations came about, which really added something special to the evening.

A few days later I was reading at Eastbourne Poetry Cafe and encountered Andy Breckenridge, who I’m ashamed to say I couldn’t place at first but he gently reminded me that we’d met right there at that event a year or two ago, when I bought his excellent book The Fish Inside (Flight of the Dragonfly). I put it down to momentary brain fog as I pondered how my first set went down and how to wow them with the second.

The second load of books has arrived and now I’m gearing up for more readings. The next is at Arundel where I’m reading at the Victoria Institute Arts Junction on Monday 9th June. A couple of weeks later I’ll be joining Peter Kenny and Sarah Barnsley for a Telltale Poets reading at the wonderful In-Words at Greenwich Library We’ll be chatting about the genesis of Telltale Press and reading from our books, and it’s free – this is my only London gig at the moment and I’m excited that it’s on my old stomping ground. Please come to either Arundel or Greenwich if you’re in that neck of the woods!

By the way, I’ll be writing a second blog post with a bit more about The Mayday Diaries and That Cover Image….

 

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New book stuff, and other Spring shenanigans

On Pevensey beach

Just back from a walk along the beach at Pevensey, part of the newly-established ‘England Coastal Path’. Sunny days at this time of year are so precious, aren’t they?

Now I’m about to get down to some work, mostly to do with the forthcoming book (ahem! did I mention that before?) which is now put to bed and being printed as I write. One of the last jobs was to decide on the cover image, which I’m very pleased with, and will talk about that in a future post. The Lewes launch is arranged – I’m sharing the gig with Peter Kenny who’ll be reading from his not-one-but-two pamphlets that came out in 2024. The original plan was to have the launch event on the official launch date, which is of course May 1st. But for various reasons it’s a week later. Close enough! Being a modest type (well, let’s just say I find it cringeworthy to do too much self-promo) I’ve engaged some help with promotion… more on that in a future post too, no doubt. Meanwhile I’ve made a Mayday Diaries landing page. And one of my wonderful blurbers, Rory Waterman, recently gave the book a glowing endorsement on Bluesky. Gulp!

Ok that’s enough gushing for now. Other poetry shenanigans of late: I really enjoyed the Eastbourne Poetry Cafe night last week when Mara Bergman was the featured poet. I really enjoyed her reading. Not only that but there were some good and varied open-micers too. I think EBC is attracting a more diverse audience these days, and well deserved.

Here’s Mara reading:

Mara Bergman reading

Next week I’m off to the National Poetry Competition awards night in London, which is always a happy occasion, and interesting to find out which poems have been judged the winners and hear then read.

Alongside poetry of course there’s music: concert with the East Sussex Community Choir singing Handel and Vivaldi this Saturday in Lewes Town Hall,  lots of forward planning for choral workshops in October and next Spring, for the Lewes Singers visit to Ely in the summer and even for Christmas concerts.

The other week I was fortunate to take part in a guided walk of Spitalfields, a historic quarter just East of the City of London, by the Gentle Author. I’ve been a reader of the GA’s blog for many years and it’s a fascinating trove of stories from this part of London -the places, the people, the history. Despite being well-known in the area, the Gentle Author is a very private person and never gives away their name. Which for some reason gives the blog (and the tours) a certain cachet. If you’re interested in London’s social history I highly recommend the tour. It ends with tea and cake in the drawing room of one of the historic Georgian houses on Fournier Street, home to many famous residents over the years including Gilbert & George. here’s the view from the window, onto Nicholas Hawksmoor’s iconic Christ Church:

Christ Church Spitalfields from the Gentle Author tour

And last but not least the garden. Various seedlings are on the go, and I can’t wait for the soil to warm up a bit and for all the Spring action to start. Hurrah!

seed trays

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Coming soon!

the mayday diaries cover teaser

It’s suddenly all happening.

The Mayday Diaries from Pindrop Press launches on 1st May (oh yeah!) and the countdown has begun!

Negative thoughts: I’m reminded that I should have started thinking about promoting the book ages ago. Probably need help.

Positive thoughts: The marketing cap is back on, I’m reviewing my websites and socials and preparing to dust things off and move up a gear. I’ve bought a domain name. I’m creating an action plan.

I’m proud of the collection, proud of the testimonials for the book and ridiculously proud of the cover. All will be revealed in due course – yes! It’s one those annoying cover-reveal-teasers. Who knows, maybe there’ll be a live unboxing too, he he.

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How the collection is going, and other news

Foyle Young Poets 24

People are asking me about the poetry collection forthcoming from Pindrop Press. Well, it’s a long way off yet. Sharon Black at Pindrop does a marvellous job of publishing and promoting poets, but being an editor as well as a publisher, it’s been a busy time for her. So although The Mayday Diaries is still forthcoming, it won’t be in my hands for a few more months yet. I’ve been fiddling with the manuscript, of course: there are some poems I’d like to drop, others I’d like to insert. Others have changed. I’m playing with different subheadings to the sections. None of this I’ve discussed yet with Sharon, but I’m looking forward to her creative input and editing skills.

Meanwhile, since I sold the last of my limited-edition Foot Wear, I’m now itching to make another mini pamphlet along similar lines, although this time completely handmade. Foot Wear had a printed cover so this time I’ve got something more quirky in mind.

We didn’t get the DYCP grant for Planet Poetry. ‘Other applications preferred.’ Not unexpected, but still a blow. Still, our first two episodes of Season 5 are up – Danez Smith and Isabel Galleymore – both definitely worth a listen if you haven’t already. In the latter, I read a poem by Indy Moon who was one of the Foyle Young Poets winners this year. I went to the awards celebration at the British Library last month and it was a lovely celebratory event.  Indy is one of many names to watch out for in the future. (Pictured here is Judith Palmer of the Poetry Society kicking things off.)

Oh, and I’ve got a poem forthcoming in Flights e-journal, which is part of the publishing arm of Flights of the Dragonfly, a spoken word night in Brighton.

Next up, Christmas? Our Lewes Singers concert on December 22nd has already clocked up 22 ticket sales! OK, let’s not start with the carols just yet.