Michelle Connor
- Apr 1, 2020
- 3 min read

Perverse - Release Blog Tour

Perverse –

a collection of short prose and verse

By Tim Walker

PERVERSE is an eclectic collection of short, snatched memories and random ideas that tumbled out of a monthly spoken word event called The Innerverse. After two years, I had amassed plenty of odd poems and short stories and pulled this collection together during corona virus quarantine in March 2020.

‘Perversity’, is an obstinate urge or contrary behaviour; a wilful desire to not conform.

That made me think - life can sometimes be perverse – full of contradictions, disappointments, grief and sheer bloody-mindedness. But despite this, our sense of what is right and our collective willingness to submit to the rule of law, provides a counterbalance that somehow gets us through.

I hope you enjoy this collection of verse and prose - a pastiche of my life, a nod to history and current affairs, a wistful look back, a hope for better days, and a celebration of life and all its riches.

Only 99c/99p on Kindle: ( Free on April Fool's Day, 2020 ) Grab Here

Paperback only £$ 4.99: Grab Here

WOOD FOR THE TREES

Since the dawn of time a great forest grew

With bushes and trees of beech, oak and yew

Then every year, when the warming begins

They would scatter their seeds in helicopter spins

Or by flowering buds, dropping nuts or seeds

Or enlisting the aid of the birds and the bees

To give the forest a sense of rebirth, in a way

And replace those who had fallen to brown decay

The tree parents would bend and groan in the breeze

Bowing to protect saplings that sprouted with ease

Until one day a stranger did emerge

With curious swagger and ungainly lurch

Attracting the attention of rabbits and bees

To introduce himself to the curious trees

“I am the axe and I’m just like you

My handle fashioned from the finest yew

I can tell of the outside and many, many things

If you would let me play with your fine saplings.”

The elder trees moaned and groaned in the breeze

And agreed they would like to know of these

Fantastical things from beyond the meadow

So they welcomed in the ungainly fellow

And soon the axe had them all enthralled

With tales of people, cars and buildings walled

When the axe saw he had gained their trust

He said, “And now meet my mate, Russ.”

Russ jumped among them and picked up his friend

Then began cutting the trees who away did bend

But they could not escape the axe’s sharp blade

And soon the sun shone on the unhappy glade

They stretched their backs and beheld the mess

Then put up a sign saying, ‘Welcome to Progress’.

AUTHOR PROFILE - TIM WALKER

Tim Walker is an independent author living near Windsor in the UK. He grew up in Liverpool where he began his working life as a trainee reporter on a local newspaper, The Woolton Mercury. A media career ensued, including a stint overseas in Zambia.

His creative writing journey began in earnest in 2013, as a therapeutic activity whilst recovering from cancer treatment. He started an historical fiction series, A Light in the Dark Ages, in 2015, following a visit to the near-by site of a former Roman town. The aim of the series is to connect the end of Roman Britain to elements of the Arthurian legend, presenting an imagined history of Britain in the early Dark Ages.

His latest book is Arthur, Dux Bellorum, a re-imagining of the story of King Arthur, published in March 2019. Book four in the A Light in the Dark Ages series, it won two book awards in April 2019 - One Stop Fiction Book of the Month and the Coffee Pot Book Club Book Award. The final book in the series, Arthur Rex Brittonum, is due out in June 2020.

The series starts with Abandoned (second edition 2018); followed by Ambrosius: Last of the Romans (2017); and book three, Uther's Destiny (2018). Series book covers are designed by Canadian graphic artist, Cathy Walker. Tim is self-published under his brand name, timwalkerwrites.

Tim has also written two books of short stories, Thames Valley Tales (2015), and Postcards from London (2017); a dystopian thriller, Devil Gate Dawn (2016); and two children's books, co-authored with his daughter, Cathy - The Adventures of Charly Holmes (2017) and Charly & The Superheroes (2018) with a third in the pipeline – Charly in Space.