I am really excited that the great day is very close now, just 4 days away on Weds 20th May. The Paperback copies of my book have arrived and I am now taking oreders via PayPal. Go to PayPal.com and the link PayPal.me/MargaretRoyall. The price is £10.50 to include post and packing. The memoir will also be available on Amazon and Kindle, £8.99 for paperback and £4.99 for Kindle download.
It is an unusual fusion of poetry, prose, old photographs and memorabilia. It loosely takes its form from the Japanese Haibun but is updated to a modern western style.
Here is a synopsis of what to expect
The Road to Cleethorpes Pier
A Memoir in Prose and Verse
MARGARET ROYALL
‘I never missed my childhood home
until the tide stopped rolling in and
ochre sand no longer crunched between my toes …’
Nottinghamshire poet Margaret Royall’s new memoir is unusual. It takes the form of a ‘Haibun’ – a traditional Japanese combination of prose and poetry.
Margaret says: ‘I have chosen this form deliberately. The range of Haibun is broad and frequently includes autobiography. In this case the combination of prose and contemporary poetry has allowed me to really convey the beauty of growing up by the seaside in a bygone era.’
The history:
Margaret was born in 1944 to the bustle of Cleethorpes. Her world is one of family outings in a tiny Austin 7, ferry rides across the Humber, and lifelong friendships that are forged in unexpected places.
Family runs like a comforting thread throughout this lovely book, and it has been illustrated with many original photographs.
Readers will enjoy the nostalgia of poems about pushing damp clothes through the mangle on washdays, the smell of gas light, and eating fish and chips wrapped in newspaper. There are also vivid descriptions of steam travel to London, and the former glory of the Grimsby fishing fleet. And finally there are many powerfully subtle, heartfelt moments conveyed by poems and extracts about the lifelong friendships Margaret has formed along the way.
The Road to Cleethorpes Pier is beautiful portrait of childhood in prose and verse ‐ perfect for anyone who has dreamed of growing up by the seaside
Topical: Margaret Royall’s passion for poetry began in early childhood. Retirement brought the opportunity to pursue her writing seriously, giving voice to acute experiences of loss, grief and chronic illness.
The Road to Cleethorpes Pier is published on 20 May 2020 in ebook and paperback priced £8.99
A special hand bound hardback edition is also being produced at the publisher’s studio
Extract:
Love Calls Me Home
A breath of cool air kisses my brow,
disturbs the tangled curls on the pillow.
The heady scent of opening lilies
drifts up from the garden.
Threads of childhood long ago
weave complex webs behind closed lids.
As the fuse catches and smoulders
the kaleidoscope shifts into focus
Floating through the open window
on a chill sea‐breeze in late Spring
I sense invisible hands supporting me –
ghost hands, male and female
I watch myself on mornings of promise
wandering bare‐foot along the beach,
catching the fishermen on the jetty,
struggling ashore with their haul of cockles and shrimps.
Clambering down the slipway to the breakwater,
I quietly stare out to Spurn point,
waiting for the revolving light to flash again,
for the incoming tide to fill the gullies.
The film scene plays on in my head,
reliving that childhood magic,
my brain erasing negative scenes between
then and now, no second takes possible.
Startled, I wake again on the cool side of the bed
in sheets like shrouds. The silence is deafening.
Yet just for a tide‐span I was there again,
back in that safe cocoon.
[‘Love Calls Me Home’ is an extract from ‘The Road to Cleethorpes Pier’ (2020, Crumps Barn Studio), copyright of the author © Margaret Royall 2020. All rights reserved.]
Bibliographic data:
Published by Crumps Barn Studio, Syde, Cheltenham GL53 9PN http://www.crumpsbarnstudio.co.uk
Paperback ISBN: 9781999870577
178 pages
46 black and white photographs Release date: 20 May 2020
Front cover and author photo
Margaret Royall 