And what a lovely evening it was here at Lumen, near Russell Square in London:

As you can see, it is a very modern church, and that kiln-like structure in the middle is actually a lovely, dark meditation room! The church is also used for a homeless shelter, and it is one of the shelters that my launch, and the poetry series which it was a part of, supports.

And speaking of support, we had a great audience, despite last minute conflicts and a seeming epidemic of winter illnesses.  As it turns out, I’m becoming quite the little ham in my old age. I really loved being up there and reading my poetry (see left).  And look how happy I looked (see right)!

And why wouldn’t I be happy? I had my intrepid publisher, Adele Ward from Ward Wood Publishing there to introduce me:
And the audience was full of friends from all parts of my life, including some marvelous writers such as Tania Hershman, Sarah Salway, Lauri Kubuitsile (all the way from Botswana), Debi Alper and Emma Darwin, many of whom even took open mic spots to read one of their own poems.

It’s often hard to know what to read at such things, especially since this was as much a celebration of years of effort coming to fruition, as it was a poetry reading.  So I decided to keep it light, avoiding poems about the “d’s” – divorce, death and doom.  But that meant that everyone got a taste and a flavour of the voice which does run in and out of the collection, and many were then happy to buy a copy and go home to read the rest of the “quieter” poems on their own.  There is definitely something to that old saying, “leave ’em laughing.”

I hope you’ll consider getting yourself a copy. You can find it in all the usual places, but most especially here.