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1958-
Poet. Born at Bliss Gate, a tiny village in Worcestershire, 4 miles west of Bewdley, on the edge of the Wyre Forest. He grew up on a smallholding and his subsequent writing was influenced, to some extent by these early impressions of the local countryside. After attending Kidderminster Grammar School he went on to study English Literature at Exeter University. Simon first worked as a journalist, his writings on countryside matters being published in Country Life and in the Daily Telegraph. He wrote affectionately of his roots in A Wyre Forest diary (1981) published by Ken Tomkinson which chronicles a year in the countryside. A number of the important poems in The occasions of love were written when he lived in Worcester during the late 1980s. He has worked as a teacher and lived for many years in West Yorkshire but is now a resident of Shrewsbury, Shropshire and feels that he has returned to his native land.
Simon Fletcher has had several collections of poetry published, most recently by Pennine Pens, a small but growing press in Hebden Bridge. Early influences, by his own admission, have included A.E. Housman, John Clare and R.S. Thomas. His work has been critically acclaimed, most notably, perhaps, by the late Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate, who commented "I enjoy the deft fluency, the economy, the pure tone, the pang" when he read The occasions of love. Simon's work is well known in his former Yorkshire home area and his poem, Ockham's razor was runner-up in the Ilkley Literature Festival Poetry Competition in 1995. In 1997 he set up a multicultural literature company called Mini Mushaira. His latest book, Email from the provinces was published November 2000.
Since September 2000 he has been a part-time literature development worker in Wolverhampton and run a Young Writers' workshop at the Gateway, Shrewsbury.
In 1996 Simon gained a Yorkshire Arts Writer's Award to enable him to travel to Pakistan to research the 'Mushaira' poetry scene.
In 2000 he won a Year of the Artist award and he is currently 'Writer in Residence' at the Shropshire and Mid-Wales Hospice.
The following works are available in the West Midlands Creative Literature Collection:-
Charms (1980). Published by Jim Charlton
The cherry trees of Wyre, and other poems (1997).
Published by Angria Press.
Email from the provinces (2000)
A little bridge [with Debjani Chatterjee and Basir Sultan
Kazmi] (1997). Published by Pennine Pens.
The occasions of love (1994). Published by Pennine
Pens.
The occasions of love [Audio-tape] (1996).
The people in the garden (1976). Published by Jim
Charlton.
Nanny knows best (2002) E-novel. Published by Pennine Pens.
The author has kindly provided some extracts from his poetry collections for this site, to give readers a flavour of his work. Unfinished is one of the sonnets for Miss Lewis from The occasions of love, A little bridge of sympathy is from A little bridge (1997) and Mowing appears in The cherry trees of Wyre. Ockham's razor is reproduced on the Pennine Pens website.
His new work Nanny knows best is published only as an e-novel. A free sample is available for viewing from Pennine Pens
Simon Fletcher's own website contains biographical information and details of his work, as does the Pennine Pens website where it is also possible to listen to him reading the poems from The occasions of love.
There are selections from reviews of his latest poetry collection, Email from the provinces on this website.
For information about Mini Mushaira go to http://www.openingline.co.uk.
Page created 9 February 2001 and last updated 9 August 2005
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