Local scenes inspire new book

Local scenes inspire new book

A new collection by a West Norfolk poet, who was born in Hunstanton, has just been published.

Towards Babingley is the seventh collection from Paul Berry and includes a number of poems inspired by the area beyond North Wootton and north of the disused, former coast road at Castle Rising.

Paul describes himself as a 'Burleigh babe', born in the Sandringham Road nursing home of that name in the 1950s, when NHS maternity provision was limited and Hunstanton was closest provider to his parent's home in Fakenham.

He now lives near King's Lynn, where he was a junior reporter on the Lynn News & Advertiser, working closely with the late and legendary Ken Arnott, the paper's Hunstanton correspondent. He went on to work for Norfolk Social Services and, later, an NHS substance misuse team. He has run Centre Poets literature group, which draws members from across West Norfolk and South Lincolnshire, since 1976.

A former finalist in the prestigious Gregory Awards, his poetry reflects a fascination with landscapes and the lives of people who live in or pass through them. In addition to settings on his doorstep, Paul explores locations in East Anglia, the East Midlands and Northern England which also feature in the book.

After his last collection was published in 2019, a reputation emerged as a chronicler of love, loss and longing and the new volume includes several lyrical poems charting relationships and their legacies.

Towards Babingley is published under the Matador imprint, at £7.99 and is on sale at By the Book on Hunstanton's High Street, or via the publisher's website www.troubador.co.uk

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