I’ll be setting sail to the Isle of Wight for a concert on Saturday 3rd September and performing a solo show with guitar at the beautiful thatched 18th century church, St Agnes in West Wight. The church lies beneath Tennyson Down in the beautiful Freshwater Bay, a mile away from Farringford where Tennyson lived for 40 years and wrote his famous poem ‘Maud.’ Tennyson’s poems have inspired me more than once, with the setting of the ‘Lady of Shalott’ to music, and ‘Crossing the Bar’.

I’m excited to announce that I will be opening a brand new music and comedy venue in my hometown Ludlow, in partnership with Athena Greek Taverna & Café on 22nd July 2022. I will be hosting monthly Friday nights in the beautiful, recently refurbished Victorian hall, at the Mascall Centre, formerly a school. The venue seats 70 people, and every month there will be a very special evening of entertainment, showcasing local, national and international artists in an intimate setting.

For most of March I was unwell and missed out on a busy period of work. Yet what felt like a setback, has, on reflection, been a blessing; from slowing down, to budget management and new insights into where the body-mind-spirit needed to heal. My recovery luckily coincided with blissfully warm weather, and part of my recuperation was sitting under a great oak tree at Croft Castle, where I witnessed a large flock of sheep being herded into the field. What a sight to behold. I was reminded of the Psalm ‘The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want, He restores my soul” – a psalm of comfort and a testament to God’s goodness in the midst of every circumstance.

“The word love is most often defined as a noun, yet we would all love better if we used it as a verb.” writes Bell Hooks in her book ‘All about Love.’ Concerned not only with love as romance and desire, but also a new path to love that is sacred, redemptive and healing for our nation, Hooks talks about how our power to love is much greater than we think, and draws attention to the barriers to love and lovelessness that exists in our society. This book, along with Marianne Williamson’s ‘Return to Love’, which Hooks refers to, are beautiful bibles of love.