It is not too melodramatic to admit that, in many respects, I had a very difficult childhood. The most tangible evidence of this is the fact that, by the time I went to University aged twenty, I had already lived in seventeen different places and had effectively been homeless three times. These days I would have undoubtedly been taken into care.

Although I had previously written the odd piece in relation to my pre-University history, I had never tackled those formative years in any concerted way. Then, at some point in 2020 - and without any specific trigger I can recall - I decided the time had come to do so; hence the idea for The Homelessness of a Child was born.

Initially I had considered autobiography as the logical route to unpack that chunk of my past, but soon settled on a collection of poetry as the most appropriate vehicle - partly because I already had a little material in that genre, and partly because I doubted who could possibly be interested in my life story.

The Homelessness of a Child contains eighteen poems which specifically relate to my experience growing up; the rest of the collection does not - though without doubt there will be echoes and reverberations throughout. How can there not be?

In this podcast I am going to read four of those autobiographical pieces plus three others selected from the remainder of the book.