Dear Blacksmith

'This wasn't the story I wanted to tell. The end happened in the middle.'

Part love story, part grief memoir, Dear Blacksmith recounts the author's brief and unconventional love affair with 'Blacksmith Paul', a maverick who lived out on the moors in the Peak District - and the heart-rending details of her grief after his sudden death, just eight months into their relationship.

Adapted from the much-loved blog Swimming Through Clouds, the story is told through a series of searingly-honest diary entries, reflections, and poems addressed to the Blacksmith. In a heartfelt rejection of 'stiff upper lip' culture, 'Writer Beverley' sheds all inhibitions to examine grief at its most raw and brutal; from planning her love's funeral with a family that she'd never met, to learning to live alone again following the loss both of her soulmate and her mother, a few weeks earlier.

A complex journey from the depths of sorrow to the beginnings of recovery, this book is a work of extraordinary sincerity; and ultimately, a hard-earned testament to the power of love and the resilience of the human spirit.

Auteur

Beverley Ward lives in Sheffield with her two children. She has been writing for over twenty years and has spent most of her career supporting other writers through facilitating writing workshops and literature projects. She was the founder of the Sheffield Young Writers project and has worked for Writing Yorkshire and as a consultant for The Reading Agency. She is now working as Writing Curator at the Writers Hub which she is developing in conjunction with Kollider at Castle House in Sheffield. Beverley also works as a writing coach and loves to run writing retreats in Wales and in Bridlington. Beverley writes both poetry and fiction as well as non-fiction. She believes in writing as a tool for therapy and play and loves nothing more than firing the imaginations of adults and children in her regular workshops. Recently described by one workshop participant as 'the Marie Kondo of writing', for her gift at 'sparking joy' in the written word. Beverley regularly writes about grief for The Huffington Post and has been present at policy-making discussions at the House of Commons as a thought-leader in the world of bereavement. When she's not writing or facilitating workshops, Beverley loves to be out in the Peak District or on the Yorkshire coast, walking and wild swimming. Find her on Twitter @BeverleyWard.