Verse celebration of the Sussex countryside

William, aged 77, who lives in Walberton, explained: “This is a book of poems I wrote mainly during the period of the Covid lockdowns 2020-21.

" Many of the poems are inspired by the landscape around the village of Eartham, near where I live.

"One of my great interests, in which I have been active over the years, both professionally and as an amateur digger and antiquarian, is archaeology, and a number of the poems reflect these enthusiasms. Some were inspired by local monuments, such as the Trundle and Stane Street; one is a commentary on the recent excavations of the Roman bath house in Priory Park, Chichester in which I took part; another similarly the great mosaic uncovered recently at Boxford, Berkshire.

"A series of poems provides a commentary on the Ukraine war. I have written poetry all my life, but never before so profusely as during this period. They seemed to flow from me day after day!

"As I write in the book’s introduction, I have long been fascinated by a sense of the past trembling upon the present, and my poems are a way of giving expression to this.

" I publish the book to try and share such ideas with like-minded people. I may well put out a second volume in a couple of years. I have written non-fiction, largely about the military defence of Britain in 1940, which is published professionally. My fiction, five novels to date: the latest A Time to Fight, is all self-published. As with poetry, it is virtually impossible to find a literary agent for fiction, unless you are already known in some way: a Catch-22 situation I have been unable so far to overcome, yet I still hold hopes!”

Also newly published, Through My Lens – A Collection of Verse comes from Aldwick poet Nicholas Prosser (Mobi Publishing Ltd, Chichester UK, £9.99 hard copy and £3.99 Kindle, available from Amazon).

Nicholas, aged 75, explained: “Through My Lens is my personal and subjective window on the world and I hope to share this with others who can empathise and identify with my view of life.

" After writing just one verse about Dublin, where I was working for quite a long time, I was encouraged to write more verses and I found subjects to write about across quite a wide range of subjects. Later it became apparent that I had written sufficient numbers of verses to compile a collection. So I worked on a structure to divide them into a series of named chapters.

"A conversation with a local publisher, Carl Adams at Mobi Publishing Ltd. followed. He encouraged me that my verses might appeal to those, who would appreciate reading these reflections and memories, observations and opinions.

" Writing in verse for me started whilst I was working as a freelance drama television director in Dublin on a twice weekly serial called Fair City.

" Observations of the contrast between Ireland and England prompted my first verse called An Englishman In Dublin.”