A WESTBURY poet has published her latest book of poems.
It was a prod from a fellow writer which persuaded Judith Nicholls to gather together her new collection, ‘Searcher, an Almost A-Z of Poems’ which was launched recently.
Poetry had been ‘the day job’ for many years in the past for Judith; working from her Westbury studio in sight of the White Horse, she had produced over 40 collections or anthologies published by several of the major publishers including Faber and Oxford University Press and visited over 500 schools to run readings and workshops for pupils and teachers.
Since then, other activities had taken over until the friendly prod from a fellow writer and a chance meeting with Dr John Chandler of Hobnob Press who publish books of local interest.
“Following the meeting, I had the interesting challenge of working through hundreds of poems from my own collections or which had been used in hundreds of other anthologies over the years,” said Judith. “As I gathered these together I realised that the titles began with almost every letter of the alphabet, hence the subtitle of ‘An Almost A to Z’.
Subjects of the poems vary from the Titanic to a childhood dare; from a woodlouse to Scott of the Antarctic!”
Brought up in her grandmother’s Lincolnshire cottage during World War Two, Judith has lived in Wiltshire since 1970. Her first collection of poems, Magic Mirror, was published by Faber in 1985, and she has written or compiled more than 40 poetry collections for children; her poems have also appeared in hundreds of anthologies.
Although her poems are still to be found in many anthologies, Judith’s books are now largely out of print, so it has been lovely, she says, to have been able to make a selection from them for Hobnob Press.
Searcher, an Almost A-Z of Poems, by Judith Nicholls is published by Hobnob Press, price £9.95 available from Hobnob Press, independent bookshops or Amazon.
