I am absolutely delighted to share news of my next poetry anthology: Night Feeds and Morning Songs gathers poems about motherhood, and will be published by Trapeze in March 2021. I’ve been squirrelling away poems about motherhood since my eldest daughter was born, so it’s the realisation of a long-held ambition to gather some of my favourites in this new collection. These amazing poems take us from pregnancy, through the tempest of the labour ward and the mad, sleepless baby days, right through to the moments our children start to stand alone and grow up, and even to the empty nest. I hope there’s something here for every mother, no matter where you are in this journey.

I have long been open about the fact that I’m a massive poetry cry-baby but I have to be honest, I was a husk at the end of some of the days editing this collection, particularly since I completed most of it with both my children at home during lockdown. (“Please go and do something else, somewhere else, so I can read poems about how much I love spending time with you, while weeping, for heaven’s sake!”) Motherhood is so MUCH at times, it’s hard to express the ways in which we are changed by it. These poets are magicians. They said things that made me laugh and cry. They said things that enabled me to time travel both backwards and forwards in my children’s lives. They said things I hadn’t ever dared to say, and could never say with such eloquence and beauty.

I am tremendously grateful to Editor Extraordinaire Sam Eades at Trapeze, who approached me partly, I feel, in sympathy for my impassioned tweets about the behaviour of my four year old. She also gave me the opportunity to write a few short pieces about my own experiences to include in the book, so this has become a deeply personal project. Everyone’s experience of the madness and mayhem of parenting is so different, but I hope I’ve been able to say something that will strike a chord with readers, and complement the incredible range of poets whose work I’ve felt privileged to read and honoured to include.

Night Feeds and Morning Songs will be published in March 2021. If you fancy pre-ordering (which is music to any author’s ears!), your local bookshop will be able to order for you, or it’s available from Waterstones and Hive.co.uk.