One of the first reviewers of my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, said, ¦.The poetry and photographs add an extra dimension that is missing from most memoirs like this since as a reader you get much closer to the reality of what is being described on the page¦. (Mark Shelmerdine, CEO, Jeffers Press). Another reviewer said my book is poetically visceral. Those statements helped validate any misgivings I had in adding other creative works into my manuscript. I really hadn't thought of putting photos in my book until my publisher suggested it. And of course I was delighted. At first she suggested photos interspersed within the chapters, but my book didn't lend itself to that. So I picked out photos in groups: of my son Paul the main subject of the book, of him and his brother, family photos, views of my office, garden, and one of the memorials to Paul a bench dedicated to him on the greenbelt outside our home. At the time I had no idea what an impact these photos would have … [Read more...]