Author Description

When I released The Hill - Songs and Poems of Darkness and Light in November 2014, I was struggling to get back to a life of sorts and fighting my way out of the corner.The collection was published just 15 months after I suffered an unexpected nervous breakdown.Part of my GP's suggested therapy was for me to begin writing and talking about the life experiences which had led to this breakdown... and much of that I did through the songs and poems I published in that book.And from childhood sexual abuse, through cancer, bereavement, bankruptcy, divorce, repossession of my home, the loss of two of my children and an assault, which almost took my life, I guess there was a lot to write about.I am still really proud of that work...100 pages of angst, joy, reflection and opinion, warts and all.It is certainly raw and maybe at times too personal. I now view it as less as an anthology of songs and poems, and more as a document of my life.So I had to move on.By the middle of 2016, I was more than halfway through writing a raft of poems for the book you now have in front of you: Another Hill - Songs and Poems of Love and Theft. I was out of the corner, and still fighting.And by the time all the work for this book was concluded (just a few days before publication in May 2018) I was so far out of the corner you won't find me... I have at last found my way home.From the opening Writer's Block to the closing poem Reminiscence, and the 80 Sparks and Flashes which give this book its tail and tale; Another Hill - Songs and Poems of Love and Theft is something I am hugely proud of.I am so grateful to my close family and many friends who have given me support, inspiration and encouragement over the past five years - so thank you from the bottom of my heart.Nic Outterside