I’ve been a Director of Happy Planet since February 2016. Soon after meeting Happy Planet’s Gail Curry in 2014, we decided to channel our shared love of verse into poetry appreciation sessions with a difference. An initial session in 2014 developed into the thriving Poetry with Friends group which ran fortnightly meetings in Happy Planet and Whitley Bay library for five years.

I’ve been writing and performing poetry, songs, memoir and working as a print and broadcast journalist for 35 years. My work has appeared in various collections and anthologies as well as on national TV and radio. I live and work in Whitley Bay and blog at www.dipdoomagazoo.wordpress.com