Millie and Bird, Tales of Paradise ~ My First Copy

A package arrived in the post yesterday – my first two copies of Millie and Bird, Tales of Paradise. A rush of thoughts and emotions followed as I opened it: how lucky I am, how beautiful the book is ( it smells wonderful too, as all books hot off the presses do) – this is due to the artist Barbara Skingle’s great generosity in allowing us to use her inspiring image for the front cover and to Pete, Kate and Brian Grogan at Iron Press for their beautiful design. I felt tearful, hard to say why: maybe because I wondered if it would ever happen, maybe because somebody believed in the work enough to publish it, or maybe because of all the hard work and the sheer emotion that went into writing the stories – maybe a mixture of all of these.

Then there was the fear, these are not fashionable stories; who will be interested in these lives lived out on the margins? Then the panic- is the writing good enough, does it live up to the book itself, haven’t I written better, newer stories? But I wasn’t about to let that spoil the day – this is my year for not doing that! So I’ve put my fears to one side and  I’m looking forward very much to launching these stories and to having my book here in front of me, on my desk where I can finally pick it up and know it’s real.

If you would like a copy it will be on sale on Amazon 26th February – you can pre-order HERE