Tom and Louise are back in the Lake District. If they are going to help the dwarfs and elves they will have to journey underground

Tom Louise, fresh from their adventures with the fire fairies, have a magical encounter with the water sprites.

I wrote this poem yesterday. Today I am seventy. It is never too late. The inspiration came from a poetry workshop at Manchester Maggies on Thursday. Our usual leader, Clare…

It is the conker season, when the young and the young hearted scour parks and woodland floors for horse chestnuts. I have met a few people under the conker tree…

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…