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What’s this Patch of Sky all about?

I aim to get a clearer view on all kinds of topics and themes, mise en abyme being my current favourite focus. But I’m also intrigued by questions around personal narratives and the way we set up our own self-histories; by belief systems however strange, fragmented or self-contradictory; by both/and not either/or; and by the puncture and humour in the contrast between how we see ourselves and how others see us.

I’m also fascinated by the craft of writing – whether fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays or journalism. Is it a professional skillset or a hobby infinitely more enthralling than the most lavish model railway layout? The most challenging of artforms or a self-indulgence like no other? I guess I’ll opt for both/and again, or even be quite musketeery about it – all for one and one for all.

For me it begs the question – what does writing do? What does it do when it connects two brains, mine and yours for example? Isn’t it doing exactly what we all do anyway, recreating the present moment as we experience it both individually but also communally, in a community of viewpoints?

About me

I'm a writer and poet based in Brighton, England. My published work includes Jizz - New & Selected Poems published in 2018 by Kingston University Press in the UK and (as Nest) by Red Hen Press in the USA. I have two published pamphlet collections, The Nutter in the Shrubbery and Glove Poems, and a full collection Shedman, as well as Our Storeys, a book about art and poetry in healthcare written with artist Sue Ridge.

I was the first non-Irish editor of The Stony Thursday Book, an annual anthology of contemporary poetry published in Ireland. I was a winner in the 2020 Wales Poetry Awards and I received an MA in Creative Writing with distinction from Birkbeck, University of London in 2024. I founded Pighog Press in Brighton in 2003, and was its director from 2003-2014.

I'm currently working on a book about Rowena Cade, who created The Minack Theatre in Cornwall, England, and her sister, Katharine Burdekin, who was wrote speculative and science fiction.

From 2002–2016, I was better known to many as Shedman, the original itinerant poet in a shed. I'll be writing more about this when I launch Shedstack in 2025, although you can find its first iteration here.

Born and raised in Birmingham, England, I now live in Brighton with my wife, Rosy McConnell, and a large golden retriever named Wilson.

Perspectives on writing

I have a shedload of experience of all kinds of writing, although I would be the first to acknowledge that quantity doesn’t necessarily generate quality. Occasionally, I may dip into my creative history to offer a perspective on writing that you may find helpful, or a punch bag against which to spar, but at least I hope you will be triggered to action.

As my patch of sky becomes less cloudy – more defined, with a clearer view of its firmament – I will include more of my own poems as a regular feature, aiming to provide one – newly composed or from my backlist – that fits the topic of that week’s post. I may put those – and my stories, sample chapters, articles and essays (or attempts at them) as new, fairly final drafts – behind the paywall.

But for the moment, access all areas for free.

I hope you will feel entitled to comment on my writing and in so doing, open one or more windows on your own.

So opinion, advice, a community of endeavour.

But what other benefits are there?

Verbal entertainment that’s intriguing, inspirational and informative.

If I only achieve that once in a blue moon in my patch of sky, I will feel I’ve made a small difference. I hope to let a little light in, even if it is only a moon beam of reflected illumination.

Please subscribe for full access to my posts and the archive, all free at present, but please make a pledge to support my work when paid subscriptions go live.

Keep refreshed

I aim to post weekly, towards the end of the week. You’ll find each new post in your email inbox. For an advertising-free experience, plus the full suite of features, get the Substack app.

Come together, right now

I’ll be very grateful for your subscription as you will help build my audience to create a community of people with common fascinations. Do make comments and follow my Notes.

Thanks for dropping by.

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