Though he claims no connection to Charles Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll, Paul Dodgson did step through his own looking glass a year or so ago to take to the stage with his guitar and his songs to see if his other first love, music, still loved him. It did and the result was a play for Radio 4, “On the Road Not Taken”, and now a book of  memoir combined with a series of musical treks. And he also has plans to record an album which would really be the fulfilling of a long held dream.

Paul is a writer of radio and TV plays, memoir, singer and writer of songs, BBC producer and an inspiring workshop tutor who has successfully encouraged other Frost contributors such as Francis Colville, Wendy Breckon and myself to take the pen plunge and write their own word worlds.

I also like to think that he and I may have crossed paths in childhood and teenage years, in Canterbury, a town we were both knew and know. Not that Paul would have been subjected to the horrors of shopping for patent leather party shoes at Ricemans. More likely he was after his first guitar or the latest vinyl. Curiously it’s a town that holds musical and literary moments for me as well as being the place where I met my first love-but that’s another memoir.

The writing bug took hold when Paul was about 12 and he realised “language could be manipulated in the same way my father worked wood” gravitating as a “musical sponge”, towards the musicality of writers like Dylan Thomas and Laurie Lee as well as developing a fascination with memoir, a current inspiration being Richard Ford’s memoir,’’Between Them: Remembering My Parents”.

Paul’s musical tastes are wide ranging from opera to obscure electronica and he describes himself as a “Punk Folk” musician, song writing like “remembering something I have forgotten”. And he’s a great believer in trying to practice every day-a theory I subscribe to but whose practice is somewhat elusive. Putting this other first love of music centre stage has involved a move across the channel –Bristol not English- to Wales where he has discovered the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, their coffee and the buzz of people this creating an inspirational nest for his writing. I’m sure lots of writers empathise with such places being great to create- and you can overhear some fascinating conversations.

So having spent 30 years “singing unheard songs in my head and in the kitchen when no-one was home” Paul is now touring pubs, festivals and front rooms to share and “persuade other people to pursue long forgotten dreams… just carry on down the road and see where it takes me”. If you want to read more go to “On The Road Not Taken, a love story about the transformational power of music”, which is crowdfunding on Unbound and become part of the story.

https://unbound.com/books/on-the-road-not-taken and book him for an evening of music and memoir. I have.