In October of 2013 Cumbrian poet Geraldine Green contacted Paul to see if he
could help New York poet, George Wallace, get bookings for his 2014 tour. Paul approached Scott Devon, who runs a night in Bolton, who decided to arrange an event for George in June.
Scott then discussed promoting the event with Dave Morgan and together they decided to create Bolton's first International Poetry Festival and successfully approached the Arts Council to get funding for it.
They then approached Paul to create and host a website for what had become the 'Live from Worktown' Festival - click here to view it.
Paul also assisted in organising and publicising various aspects of it. The main events were in the last week of June 2014 though there were other events throughout June and early July.
After the 2014 Paul became a director of the organisation and helped organise the 2015 festival. The festival was a huge success and took place largely over May 2015, it included performances from John Hegley, Jackie Hagan, Mandy Coe and Brian Patten.
In early 2016 Scott Devon left the organisation as did a few committee members, Dave and Paul soldier on.
Paul was asked to write a poem in February 2014 by New York Poet, George Wallace who edits a poetry column called "Walt's Corner" published in a weekly newspaper in Whitman's home town of Huntington Long Island, called 'The Long Islander'. The paper was founded by Walt Whitman back in 1838, so there's quite a bit of history to it.
Paul wrote a poem especially for this publication call "A good life?" which George accepted and which appeared in the paper.
George is a noted New York poet and is currently poet in residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace which is a New York State historic site.
From June 2013 to appoximately mid 2020, Paul wrote hundreds of articles for the very popular, satirical and surreal 'Real Bolton News'.
Click here to read some of them.
This Monthly event has restarted and is now the 2nd Monday of the month.
You'll usually find a combination of: Paul, Nat, Ian Kell, Norman Rawl, Eric Lever, Gordon Zola, Dave Morgan, James Hartnell and others performing.
The Bay Horse, Babylon Lane, Heath Charnock PR6 9ER
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Some of the articles previously published elsewhere can now be found here.
A new article in the investigation of the history of the Crime Thriller series, The Murder Ballads, is also published here for the first time. This article looks at how this ancient form of news broadcasting influnced later forms of the thriller, particularly the Penny Dreadfuls.
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