Mother Dear

This is a photograph of my mother, taken for the Daily Mirror in 1983.

Everytime I look in the mirror these days, I catch my mother looking back, at roughly this age, with the same number of kids, demanding to know what the hell I'm doing with my time.

Not making serious inroads on a writing career that will produce millions of sales worldwide and more than 150 novels, that's for sure.

I think I've written more than 150 poems. I wonder if that counts.

Good old Philip Larkin, eh?