A Welcome Surprise

Posted by Expert Gadget Reviewer on Saturday 6 January 2007

I'm writing this having sat down after opening my mail on returning to Sheffield (I've been visiting friends and family over the Christmas and New Year period). And the reason I'm sitting down is due to my current state being that of happiness mixed with a fair amount of shock. Yes, the electricity and gas bills for my housemates and I are enormous, and yes the place is a bombsite as the glaziers are only halfway through re-fitting the entire house, but we'll leave those things be. Because among the tedious mounds of bills, Tesco club card offers, and boiler insurance leaflets, I found a small, non-descript envelope which, at first glance, I assumed to contain a letter from a friend. It didn't, but finding a TLS postcard from poetry editor Mick Imlah inside made me near jubilant. He kindly informs me that a poem I sent off some weeks ago, 'The Mole', is being published in a future issue of the TLS. I'm literally ecstatic, which is why I'm excitedly posting this on here before I lose all self control and, I don't know, open a bottle of wine or something. Anyone care to join me for a glass?

And before I forget, many thanks to poets Ros Barber and Rob Mackenzie for kindly publicising my poem 'Byroads' appearance on Todd Swift's Eyewear.