My first poems were published by Raven Magazine in 1980. My first short stories were broadcast on Radio Sheffield and then Radio Leeds shortly after that. Various competition successes, work included in anthologies and newspaper articles were a fillip but writing, compelling as it was, always had to be fitted around earning a daily crust and keeping a roof overhead.

Now though, the nettle has been grasped and I'm pushing out into the mighty ocean of full-time writing, sailing on the good ship Optimism. Someone offering to publish my young adult novels would count as a fair wind. 



Opposite John Burnside shares my delight in winning the Mirehouse prize.