Following my post on 9 January about the passing of dear Dennis Greig, here is a marvellous obituary in The Guardian by Peter Pegnall, one of Dennis’s dearest friends and a poet published many times by Lapwing.
‘Think where man’s glory most begins and ends / And say my glory was I had such friends.’ W B Yeats
Lapwing Publications in Belfast has been my happy poetry home since 2010 when Dennis Greig offered to publish my first book, Sweet Seventeens. Over the past three years, Dennis has been coping with incredible courage with a sharp decline in his health.
In 1988 Dennis and his wife Rene started Lapwing after chatting with Michael Longley and Mairtin Crawford about the need for an independent Northern Irish based poetry publisher. The Arts Council NI helped with a modest sum to start with but for much of its existence Lapwing has been financially independent from any arts body.
Dennis’s son (publisher and writer) Amos Greig says: Over those 36 years Lapwing has published roughly 400 poetry pamphlets, chapbooks and collections helping new and established writers reach a new audience and Dennis has provided years of service to the poetry community both in Ireland and abroad, both in guidance on poetry matters and from time-to-time personal support, all this without any funding. Several of the poets they have published have gone on to be published in other poetry houses and won several literary accolades.
As so often happened with Dennis, he became my friend as well as publisher. In 2010 my life turned upside down and while I found my bearings, Dennis’s encouragement and welcome of my words was a treasure. I am deeply honoured to have four beautiful Lapwing books of my poetry, hand made in my native Belfast, and to be part of the community of Lapwing poets all over the world.
While the Greig family copes with Dennis’s health issues and their own (the family have HHT), Lapwing is offering the sale of backlist PDFs. You can contact Amos Greig through Facebook or through the contact email for Amos’s excellent poetry magazine, A New Ulster: g.greig3@gmail.com
I wish the whole family a turn for better health soon and peace to recover.
If Lapwing is not able to reply to your contact and you would like to buy any of my books, I still have a few and can send you copies for £10 each including postage to the UK and Ireland: rosiejohnstonwrites@gmail.com
Whiskey in the Jar is still putting a sway into my step after Thursday evening’s launch at Harbour Books in Whitstable. It was the first time the shop had hosted musicians – Whitstable’s finest ukulele band, The Useless Pluckers – and it was magnificent. A spontaneous line-up of ‘Pluckettes’ formed as a backing group to Mustang Sally and the whole thing was the warmest, most memorable launch I’ve ever had.
Heartfelt thanks to lovely Harbour Books for their hospitality and Prosecco, to the excellent Pluckers and to everyone who came and danced, laughed, sang, chatted, met old and new friends, and bought books. I intruded on the music briefly to introduce Six-Count Jive and will never forget the appreciative silence while I read from it.
Lapwing’s little volumes are hand bound and hand printed on high quality paper in Belfast, close to the Cave Hill. That’s Belfast for you, my home town; it can be an ugly place sometimes but there’s always beauty there too.
At £10 each, they’re the same price as my first Lapwing book in 2010, even though printing costs have doubled since then, so they’re a wee bargain. They’ll be available through the Lapwing website soon – meanwhile I have a few copies to sell direct here, signed if you’d like, for £10 each including p&p. (They will not be available through amazon as its charges and discounts are punitive for small publishers.) Six-Count Jive is dedicated to anyone with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and everyone who loves them. Female and male. I hope this little book might help somebody realise they are not alone and can reach out for help.
On Thursday THIS WEEK we’ll be launching my poetry book SIX-COUNT JIVE (Lapwing Publications) at Harbour Books in Whitstable from 6.30pm. Yesterday a dear friend of mine said, ‘Oh, is that this week?’ Yes, it is 
Whitstable’s finest ukulele band, The Useless Pluckers, will be helping us celebrate.
Harbour Books will be pouring their marvellous Prosecco and if dancing breaks out, we just might jive in the street. You and your friends are all welcome! This is a FREE event.
This is beginning to feel real. Lapwing Publications and I have finished our edits this week and below you can see the cover. The little footsteps are muddled dancing efforts by someone struggling with the worst of post-traumatic stress disorder. Well done, Dennis, of Lapwing, I love it!
It’s off to the printers soon and there should be copies available in around a month. I’ll be putting PayPal on here so that you can have personally signed copies, with special good wishes to anyone with PTSD or who is close to someone with that diagnosis.
it’s a beautiful, sunny day here with the best of spring doing its best to break through. I wish you all a wonderful day, wherever you are. 
You can never tell if a book is going to make it to publication until you’re holding a copy in your hand or see it there on the e-reader. That’s why the day the first copies are delivered is so huge. But this is a pretty big day for me too – the one where my poetry publisher, Lapwing in Belfast, said he has an ISBN waiting and that it’s time to work on the final draft of Six-Count Jive together.
I’ve been gathering the poems for nearly ten years now. They’ve been honed, criticised by helpful poet friends (here and in Northern Ireland) and checked time and again for mistakes and howlers. There’s more work ahead but I love having my words curated by someone who is interested in making my book available to strangers. Dennis Greig of Lapwing is one of the finest editors I’ve known.
More info soon. Have a happy weekend!
Rosie Johnston 