The Hitchin Festival is in full swing this week.

Here's poet and author Chris M L Burleigh in conversation Hitchin author Matt Adcock ahead of their eagerly-awaited appearances at the Hitchin Festival this week.

'Life is serious, but is not to be lived too seriously' says Chris M L Burleigh

Serious or humorous, my poems are always good-natured.   

I write when I have something to say, and I feel I have found the right way to say it. 

I have been writing poetry all my adult life as my response to scenes, situations, people and emotions. 

Particles of Light was self-published in 2017. The book has been well received and has sold well in my local bookshops.  

Intersecting Lines, was traditionally published by Beercott Books in 2021. It continues to reflect my interest in people, love, the natural world, and the human condition. 

I have been published in anthologies by Fish Publishing and Indigo Dreams. 

I hope readers will enjoy reading my poems, and will feel I am putting their own experiences and emotions into words.   

It's such a great feeling when you get good feedback and review comments, or when somebody chooses to take home a copy of your words from a bookshop. That's communication! 

I am a full member of the Society of Authors. I read regularly at poetry 'open mics' and at local literary events, and I give talks about my poetry to community groups.  

I am really looking forward to reading at Gusto's in Churchgate, Hitchin, on Thursday 6th July as part of this year's Hitchin Festival.  

I can best describe what I'm planning to do with this description:  

I will read selected poems from my two collections.  

There will be poems to move you, to surprise you, and to make you laugh. I will read a few at a time, then go back over them, explaining why I decided to write them, the background to each, and why they are written the way they are.  

This will give you insight into the mind of the writer, and why each poem is constructed the way it is. 

Then I'll repeat the pattern, reading a few at a time and going back over them, as much as the session time allows.  

It's about having fun with words and meaning, using words cleverly to say things differently, and saying the familiar in unfamiliar ways. 

The humorous poems and one-liners are there for entertainment, to be enjoyed, though they often contain a 'sting in the tail'.  

Chris ML Burleigh in conversation with Matt Adcock

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Chris M L Burleigh is a poet with a distinctive and refreshingly light-hearted voice …his sensitively nuanced, bitter-sweet, yet vibrantly playful poetry…Burleigh's work put me in mind of Philip Larkin's words ''Poetry should begin with the emotion in the poet, and end with the same emotion in the reader'' ' 

Paul Spalding-Mulcock, Yorkshire Times  

This book is both lyrical and beautiful. The poetry is so magical, I just can't get enough!

Shijia Ali 

The poems/one-liners really worked well as comedic devices, and I honestly found myself laughing out loud in some places.

I give Particles of Light five out of five stars! Happy Reading!

Michelle Kidwell  

Beautiful imagery, really nice poems