Fighting Talk

Paul Cookson was born in 1961, brought up near Preston, and now lives in Retford, Notts. He has worked as a poet since 1989, performing in schools and libraries, and at literature festivals and events across the world. As well as being Poet-in-Residence for The National Football Museum and Everton in the Community, he is Writer-in-Residence for Sing Together, which involves 125 Lancastrian schools and over 5000 children and 400 teachers. He is also Poet Laureate for Slade, has written a book of poems about the band and performed with Noddy Holder, Jim Lea and Don Powell. He is now part of Don Powell's Occasional Flames and is currently working on their second album. Paul has more than sixty titles to his name and over a million book sales, and with a quarter of a million copies sold, the anthology The Works has become a teacher's 'poetry Bible'. You can visit his website at www.paulcooksonpoet.co.uk and follow all of his poems daily on Twitter @paulcooksonpoet.

Praise for Paul Cookson's work: "Every day should have a Paul Cookson moment." - Simon Mayo; "Simple, direct and poetic. Caring, compassionate and funny." - Ian McMillan; "Hilarious." - The Times; "Wordsmithery of the highest order and wittiest bent." - Mark Radcliffe