Six-Count Jive (Lapwing, 2019) is back!

Thanks to Amos Greig, SIX-COUNT JIVE (Lapwing Publications, 2019) is back on sale through Amazon. You can buy it here.

The Lake magazine: ‘This is a superbly crafted piece of work whose language is at times sublime.

Billy Mills on his Elliptical Movements said ‘This is an important little book. Read it.’

London Grip magazine: ‘Six-Count Jive is a brave and honest book, one which I hope will not only be enjoyed as poetry, but also give encouragement to women recovering from similar experiences. Rosie Johnston dedicates it to everyone with PTSD, “especially those of us traumatised in our own homes.’

SAFE GROUND (Mica Press, 2025) is for sale via Amazon too.

London Grip: ‘I highly recommend Safe Ground as it intelligently and powerfully communicates both the pain and joy of a complex life, lived by a cultured woman who has resolved ‘Like father, like daughter, I would live my life to the full and embrace love.’’

High Window: ‘At the end of the day perhaps the only ‘safe ground’ in an age of trauma is the refuge of being able to write about it. There is tenderness, trauma and wisdom in these pages:

Veiled dreams. That need to please,
appease, make good, make safe.
Make it out of there. (“Reflection“)’

SIX-COUNT JIVE (Lapwing Publications, 2019), original cover. Dennis Greig and his wife Rene were keen ballroom dancers; Dennis’s design shows how trauma can scatter the brain.

The memoir called Inside Out is by another Rosie Johnston, by the way. Nothing to do with me.

Poetry Bath radio show with Sian Thomas

Sian Thomas describes her POETRY BATH radio show as ‘a place where poetry lovers can immerse themselves in words and word play. In each episode Sian meets a writer to listen to their work and explore the joys and challenges of the writing life.’

Sian’s programmes are an utter delight and I’m thrilled and grateful she has found time to interview me, in celebration of my fifth book of poetry Safe Ground, published by Mica Press this spring. Her interview falls into two parts, each around half an hour:

first, here &

second, here.

What she doesn’t say out loud is that she is not only a fine poet herself, but an expert interviewer, searching more deeply than most – always kindly – among the nooks and crannies of our lives and writing processes. A ramble through her other interviews will be well worth your time.

And it’s always great fun being with Sian. Our chat swirls from her learning the Welsh language and my taking up Irish mandolin, to poetry (hers, mine and everybody’s) and when we’ll go and wash the past away in a paddle together in the North Sea, just ten minutes from where I live.

Happy listening!

Poetry & Prosecco event on Saturday 4 October at Canterbury Cricket Ground

Pack away sandals, sun-honeyed

limbs; autumn’s

here, welcome as wisdom (Bittersweet 17s, Lapwing, 2014)

Here in the UK leaves are falling and jerseys are coming out of our cupboards again. So, to cheer us up, Sarah Briault is organising her second Poetry & Prosecco event and has asked me to read alongside the excellent Sarah Hehir, Bethany Goodwill and Crista Brodie-Levinsohn. On Saturday 4 October, 2025, 7.30 – 10pm (doors open at 7pm), we’ll be at the Oriole Cafe, Spitfire Ground (Kent Cricket) St Lawrence Canterbury CT1 3NY. Book here through EVENTBRITE for this ‘fun, bubbly evening’. Your ticket price includes a glass of Prosecco (or non-alcoholic drink), free parking at the venue and the chance to read your own words in the open mic. 

(This photo was the cover for Sweet Seventeens, my first book of poetry, published by Dennis Greig of Lapwing in 2010)