Almost finished with the hack work, and actually started writing again properly, though also redrafting stringently. I always seem to have a bunch of poems to work on, rather than finishing one before starting another. Consequently there’s often a pile of unfinished abandoned poems in a file on my desktop. I love completing a collection because it means the poems are tidied away, fixed and no longer to do with me; they can just go off and seek their fortunes, like the idiot third child of the fairy tales.
Gearing up for holiday next week, which will be lovely. Just a Welsh cottage near the sea, where I will do no work, but might write poems, play on the beach and potter round shops, eat fish n chips and enjoy the air, go for walks and embrace Wales, one of my favourite places in the world. My husband is half Welsh, my daughter is learning Welsh, and my dear 90 year old mum-in-law didn’t even speak English till she was 5.
Before that, I have two lovely events on the Wirral, both connected with The Victorians. I am still tweaking my ideas for these, and am so looking forward to them.
My lovely children’s poetry book will be out soon. It’s the culmination of years of writing poetry for kids, often when asked to do so for children’s anthologies. So I am really grateful to John Foster, Paul Cookson, Fred Sedgwick, Roger McGough, Andrew Fusek Peters, David Orme, Gaby Morgan, David Harmer and Fiona Waters for all the stimulus and encouragement over the years. The New Generation is available from Salt Publishing and all good online bookshops, as well as from me personally, as soon as the printers have worked their magic.
Angela Topping 
Dear Angela,
Thank you for your very kind words about ‘All the Frogs’. I’m still what Douglas Dunn once called a technopeasant, and don’t use Facebook very much, but I was alerted to your review and am most grateful for it.
All very best wishes,
John ( Mole )