Cathy is an award-winning Derbyshire writer, formerly Derbyshire Poet Laureate, and author of five published poetry collections. She also writes memoir and plays. She works as a writing facilitator, currently leading three writing courses for the over 55s at Nottingham’s Royal Centre and Nottingham Playhouse, as well as undertaking consultancy work for various literature and arts organisations.

Cathy is also an accredited Coach for Writers and experienced mentor,  and runs a unique programme of writer support, The Writer Highway, which provides tailored support for writers at all levels.

Find out more about Cathy at her website.

This interview is pre-recorded and will be released on our YouTube channel at 7pm on October 6th. Tune in then and join in the live chat, or watch any time afterwards at your leisure.

We are sorry to have to cancel this event due to COVID-19…. we hope to rearrange as an online event

In the first half Clare and Robert will read from their Waterloo Press poetry collections, Each Other and Blue Wallpaper. Clare’s poems are of love and its endurance while Robert also writes love poems, his signature being the sonnet. He was also published by Five Leaves in our poetry publishing days!

Clare’s memoir is The Missing List (Linen Press), of which Andrea Samuelson wrote:

... In the process of caring for her father during his terminal illness Clare Best finds herself remembering the abuse she suffered… She hopes he will acknowledge what he did so that they can both achieve some closure before he dies. The story is gradually revealed through scraps of information – old ciné films, imagined lists of rules, conversations…                                         

In 1841 the ‘peasant poet’ John Clare escapes from an asylum in Epping Forest and walks home to Northamptonshire. In 1995, with his life in crisis and his own mental health fragile, Robert decides to retrace Clare’s route along the Great North Road… Part memoir, part travel-writing, part literary criticism, A Length of Road is an exploration of class, gender, grief and sexuality through the author’s own experiences and through the autobiographical writing of Clare.

Admission: £4.00 (£2.00 students) including refreshments. Book via events@fiveleaves.co.uk please.