How it started...

The idea was born years ago; emerging from a tent while picking strawberries in Wales one summer the words, Fitzroy died this morning, came into my head.

Those words lay dormant until years later, and when living in an old stone cottage in France, I got involved in a local poetry group.

Having written on and off over the years without much focus, I began writing poems and contributing to a monthly compilation of the poetry groups’ works.

One of the poems was ‘The Final Ascent’, which became the first work in the first Fitzroy volume.

This was followed by other Fitzroy ‘poems’ which began to create scenarios with Mum and Dad living in the Mews with their numerous kids and the sentient bears and toys.

Finding myself somewhere between a real world and an imaginary world, the stories flowed easily as l had the freedom to put the characters into any situations I wanted to explore.

The playroom had become a place of adventure, while below in the kitchen Mum and Dad discussed and reflected on life in the mews, over numerous cups of coffee.

With a few stories written I decided to compile them into two volumes.

I also decided to discipline myself to write each morning.

I would continue to let my imagination roam, the vagabond as it is known in France, and when the time was right, bring the stories together to create the two volumes.

This was the beginning…