Rob Kersley

Bio

One of the totally unexpected developments from my totally unexpected relocation to the Honddu Valley, was finding a voice. Perhaps I felt fortunate to have survived the sudden termination of the previous chapter and the shockingly helpless unfolding of its ever more difficult pages. The discovery that these were to be the final paragraphs of a marriage born of tender, teenage sweethearts was as abrupt as it was tragic and unexpected. But, out of those ashes of despair and disbelief there was light. Liz came into my life with honesty, pragmatism, tenderness and love. I married Liz and together with my daughter Katherine, moved to Lower Chapel in the Honddu Valley. So, perhaps I felt that a miracle had indeed delivered me safely and that I had nothing to lose. Or, maybe the events of that hideous storm that washed me up, and into a place that was to become so special to me, tenderised or somehow sensitised my consciousness. Either way, it was there in the Honddu Valley that it really began. It was there that broken things were rebuilt. It was there that preconceptions were revisited and it was there that I felt the urge, the absolute necessity to communicate how that process left me feeling.

I began writing a regular blog called The Honddu Valley Herald in 2013 as a means of staying in touch with my good friend Chris Jones after he emigrated to New Zealand. These light-hearted prose evolved from commenting on developments in South Wales, to rugby matches and inevitably to global events. I would mention these correspondences to other friends who would enjoy them and pass them on to others who would then reply to me. Readership numbers therefore increased at a dramatic rate, but as western political ideologies shifted further and further to the populist right, an anxiety developed in me regarding its negative social change and the stubborn denial and inaction regarding our planet's climate crisis. The Honddu Valley Herald then turned from prose to poetry with its delivery less flippant, in an attempt to articulate these deeply held concerns.

The Honddu Valley Herald became a vehicle, a splint, a release valve, an elixir, a platform, a springboard, a highway and a journey. Thank you to everyone who has read, commented, laughed, cried, shared and engaged in these poems.

Time and Tide is the totally unexpected result of the first year or so of Honddu Valley Heralds, and I am both thrilled and grateful to see these early pieces in book form. Thank you.

Book published to date:

1. Time and Tide 

2. Factory Setting 

3. The Alibi