I’m a performance poet with appeal for both adults and children, a regular performer in schools and on the UK spoken word scene.

Influenced and inspired by the likes of pioneer poet Adrian Mitchell, I’m on a mission to re-connect poetry with people and people with poetry, both through my own work and as host of the south coast based spoken word cabaret “Don’t Feed The Poets” which has run successfully since 1999.

Some of my poems have been published in children’s poetry collections most recently in A and C Black’s “Recycling Grandad” and Macmillan’s “The Jumble Book”, the latter of which takes its title from my full length family show about a boy with dyslexia, which is currently touring.

Commissions have included writing seven contemporary Canterbury Tales for children for the European City of Culture Friend-ship, which toured ten UK cities. This year I have been chosen as an Associate Artist for Lit-Up, a national network of regional theatres promoting spoken word, and will be working with The Gulbenkian Theatre in Canterbury to produce a new performance piece around the theme of fatherhood.

I live in Southend with Juliet and our daughter Joss.

Visits: I offer entertaining, high-octane one day school visits with lively and funny performances, allowing plenty of participation for younger age groups.

I also work regularly work with schools on longer-term projects, such as my recent collaboration with Creative Partnerships and Glyndebourne Opera where I inspired eleven Year 6 classes to write lyrics for a piece of original musical theatre.

I deliver workshops and performances across all key stages. For one-day visits I usually like to start with a performance and then run workshops to class size groups (or smaller), but I’m always willing to be flexible to fit in with your timetable.

I’m happy to work with all age groups in all settings. Over the last two years I have been working on Creative Partnership projects in a school for pupils with behavioural and emotional difficulties, inspiring writing and performing projects across all age groups from six to sixteen but I am equally at home in mainstream schools.
Other Writing: In addition to my work as a poet I also work as an actor/writer for Sunny Arts, who produce social dramas for national conferences and currently as an Oral Historian, recording interviews and editing a book on the lives of the residents of a large housing estate in Southend. I can also offer schools workshops in dramatic writing and oral history.

Feedback: “The most talented, funny, original and obliging of performance poets” Jennifer Seaton, Hastings and St.Leonards Excellence Cluster

“He was fab!…he worked tremendously hard. He did four performances which included poetry and songs, answered questions, ran a writing workshop and busked at break-time in order to reach the optimum number of students. We would definitely invite him back and recommend him.” Julie Frew, Librarian, Oxford Community School