Retrospect

Dawn over Steep Holm Island

A fair bit of research and a lot of looking back over the last week or so; I'm writing a series of scripts for "Those Were The Days", ten programmes about events in the 1960s for NHSound. Then on Sunday morning I had a return visit to somewhere I worked in the early 1970s - it was Sully Hospital at the time, it's Hayes Point luxury apartments now! As I walked through the grounds and stood down by the beach, watching the sun come up over Steep Holm in the Bristol Channel, I was reflecting how life has changed and how I and my writing have changed in the intervening years.

Unlike many of the guests I interview on The Writer's Room, I can't say that I've rarely had a pen out of my hand since childhood. But in my early twenties I did start writing seriously, primarily for various professional journals. It was whilst I was working at Sully that I had my first publication - it was an article about caring for a child with a complex heart condition that was printed in the Nursing Times and for which I was paid £30. I still have a photocopy of the cheque! And I can still remember the excitement of seeing my name in print for the first time ...

When I arrived home on Sunday I unearthed as much of my earlier writing as I could find and I've been looking back over some of the reports, articles and books that followed that first publication. Not infrequently in "how to" tomes on creative writing we read about the need for novice writers to "find their voices"; I've found it quite intriguing to see how my own has developed, initially in fits and starts, but helped enormously by the advice from, and the guidance of, the course tutors and mentors I've been lucky enough to have in more recent years. Perhaps, if you have writing from much earlier days, you might find it an interesting exercise too - you may find (as I certainly did) some cringe-worthy pieces, but overall a useful, and enjoyable, experience!