Is it a bit early to recommend things for Christmas?  Well, even if it is, I suggest you make sure you send this to all the grandmas you know.

The rhymed poetry is as jaunty as the cover illustration; marching along and relatable – what Grandma has not made a call to a daughter, to find the receiver is picked up, there is clicking, breathing, and then, the burr of the line,as the receiver is replaced.  Ah yes, the grandchild has discovered the thrill of answering the phone. Read it and nod, smile, laugh, remember… Click click, clack clack, burr.

Di Castle covers the gamut from one’s child becoming pregnant, to the arrival of the grandbaby, to the advent of another. Words of wisdom, of observation, the highs, the lows… Life’s rich pattern.

Di Castle told Frost Magazine that as a child she enjoyed A A Milne’s poetry (as did most of us) then onwards to Spike Milligan’s humour and Parm Ayres laugh aloud poems so often read in her own inimitable way.

That’s where poetry  sat in Di Castle’s writer’s world until the birth of her first grandchild, when the emotion of it all set the poetic cogs turning.

Chance remarks became germs of ideas, which became poems., some of which won competitions. As the collection grew , the obvious thing was to gather them into a book. But what about illustrations? Enter Denise A Horn, and a happy partnership was born.

Grandma’s Poetry Book is many things. A memoir.  A creative view of changing roles. A humorous vehicle. But most of all a pretty fine book of rhyming poetry and one that should be enjoyed by many. Lovely illustrations too.

Grandma’s Poetry Book is available on Amazon, here:  Amazon  Kindle and Paperback.   pub Matador.