Barrow’s cranes, like the yellow hammerhead crane, are gone. With a little imagination at least one of them could have been retained like the Titan Crane in Glasgow which is…

Chapter 1 It was nearly Christmas down on the farm. In the barn Lucky the duck was keeping one eye on the turkeys in their pen. The other eye was…

On a farm in Cumbria lives a lady called Anne. One day I went to visit Anne. She told me about a duck called Lucky.  When her mother laid some…

Here is another story I used to tell my children. It was one of many based in the Lake District. They began when I was cook and Dee, my wife…

I wrote this poem for my writers group, Maggies’ Creatives, led by the excellent Clare Stuart. They meet at the Maggies Centre in Manchester every Thursday and let me join…

the ones I made up, featuring them as the heroes in magical tales based on their holidays with grandparents in Cleethorpes and Mablethorpe and with us in the Lake District.

Childhood’s boundaries are marked in chalk on walls and pavements. They are never completely erased and once you have crossed the border you can never return. You know you’ve crossed…

Three poems for the new year, and how we can work together if we want to make it a happy new year.

Why I write and why I hope. A short explanation and two poems about Christmas.

Another Christmas letter written in strange times. We decided not to go on holiday this year. We have made do with day trips to the Lake District and occasional visits…