When Rob Walton went into lockdown, he didn’t know that he would also go into mourning. Here he writes about the life and death of his dad, and how sadness seeped into various aspects of his life.

He also manages to find cheap laughs, digs at the government, celebrations of the young and old, unashamed sentimentality and suddenly disarming moments of tenderness.

Walton’s lines are expressed neatly and sparely, yet hold such purity and poignancy beneath them that they stop you in your tracks. Jane Burns

Walton is a master of musical, looping refrains as he gets closer and closer to the troubled heart of things, during this troubled year of Covid 19 and the death of a much loved father. Deborah Alma (The Emergency Poet)

Pandemic writing at its finest

Scunthorpe-born Rob Walton lives with his daughters in Whitley Bay. His poetry is published by The Emma Press, Strix, Butcher’s Dog, Culture Matters, Atrium and others. His short fiction is published in the UK, Ireland, USA, Canada and New Zealand. He collated the New Hartley Memorial Pathway text.