REFLECTIONS

Poet Diana Swann talks about her book project

Ihave earned a living as a classical musician all my life but I am now 88 and arthritic. I can no longer play the piano for it has become increasingly painful and frustrating. When lockdown began, I needed something to occupy longer hours of solitude. I am lucky in that I live in a comfortable retirement residence facing the sea and I have always enjoyed walking along the seafront aided by a rollator. I had often found that phrases lodged in my head about scenes and happenings during my walk; and I began to write them down. Soon these phrases were being worked into poems which I began to send to long-suffering friends and family. My eldest son suggested that I collect them into a book and he would support the publication, so I did. There are poems about COVID, Portsmouth and the sea, and thoughts about my own past, current and future life. I try to express the fears and hopes of people of my age, not only about our remaining days but also our worries about climate-change. Hopefully the poems will make readers smile, reflect, and empathise.

To find out more about Diana’s book go to: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/amb1/ reflections-special-poems-about-past-presentand-future-lives?ref=user_menu

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LOCAL AUTHOR LOREE WESTRON’S DEBUT NOVEL, SET IN PORTSMOUTH AND THE ISLE OF WIGHT

Jenny’s life is at a crossroads. Her marriage has grown silent since the sudden death of her youngest daughter, two years ago, and now her eldest and only child is pushing her away. Nobody at home seems to need her anymore. At the Royal Mail sorting office where she is the only woman to have stuck with the job, her position is equally precarious. Though her boss can’t fault her work, he has made it clear he wants her out. Undermined at home and at work, Jenny is desperate for something to change. So, when a postcard from Australia, begging the recipient for forgiveness, but with an incomplete address on the Isle of Wight lands on her sorting table, she does the unthinkable – she slips it up her sleeve and sets off on her bicycle to deliver it herself. If she can’t save her own faltering relationships, perhaps she can help someone else save theirs.

Set in Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight during the turbulent summer of 1984, Missing Words captures Thatcher’s Britain at a moment of national unrest and social change. Loree Westron’s debut novel is an ultimately uplifting story about love, loss, the importance of family and finding redemption.

WHAT THE READERS SAY:

An utterly human and moving family drama in which we watch one woman double-back into her past to find the future. ~ Alison MacLeod, author of Tenderness

Loree Westron possesses that rare commodity: a tender and wise understanding of the human

condition. ~ Gabrielle Kimm, author of His Last Duchess

A story of family and grief and yearning, wrapped up in a compelling mystery. Without a doubt, a writer to watch. ~ Laura Pearson, author of I Wanted You to Know

Sublime writing and emotionally captivating. ~ Pete Adams, author of Black Rose

Missing Words is published by Fairlight Books, and is available from Pigeon Books on Albert Road, and from other booksellers.

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