On Friday, the 20th December, I went along to a Book Launch for the excellent poet Nick Lovell’s first poetry publication 'Ever Since the Accident'.

The event was held at the alcohol-free cafe, Baristocats, in Swindon and organised by Black Eyes Publishing UK and it was a truly wonderful night!

I was privileged to get an open mic slot at the event, to show my support for Nick, which was filled with brilliant poetry from the other open mic poets and the two wonderful feature poets, Melanie Branton and Cive Oseman.

I performed one of my new works ‘Two-Faced Snake’, a political poem, which went down really well with the audience, along with my three other poems.

Needless to say that Nick, ever humble, gave a sterling set of a selection of his work published in his book.

Nick is a great poet and deserves lots of success and I'm sure that his new book will be very popular. I first met nick just over three years ago, when he came along to one of the first open mic events of the then Gloucester Poetry Society (now The Gloucestershire Poetry Society). Nick left me speechless by his performance of his flagship poem and very much a tear-jerker, Market Garden’. That performance has stayed with me ever since and it’s one of my favourite Spoken Word pieces.

Nick in one half and fellow founder of Oooh Beehive, a well-renowned open mic event in Swindon that draws some of the best spoken word talent in the country. You can find out more about Oooh Beehive here.

Rewind several months and I was super happy when Nick asked me to design the cover for his book. It was just wonderful to see it in print finally.

But the best thing that I took from the whole event was that the poetry scene in the South West has some brilliant people involved in it and I am blessed to be a part of it.

Nick's Book is available on Amazon and also can be ordered through all bookshops throughout the UK.