The Triangle

Last Thursday, my debut book was released through Amazon.

Planet Prentonia: The Real Story of Tranmere Rovers is a narrative history of football in Birkenhead. You can purchase your copy here.

The book features more than five years' worth of work, wrought from a lifetime of obsession about Tranmere Rovers. It took over six months to collate, corroborate, improve, edit and publish the final book. I'm immensely proud of completing this project.

As reported by The Wirral Globe over the weekend, I was in a pretty dark and fragile place when the idea for a Planet Prentonia book first popped into my anguished mind. It was Thursday 21st February 2019. I was sat in the Baltic Social, a sequestered little treasure on Parliament Street in Liverpool, over the road from my apartment. I contemplated my next moves in life.

More than any one location, that hybrid coffee shop played a crucial role in the reemergence of my creative inspiration. The place just has an insurrectionist vibe that implores you to create. It is edgy and unrefined, free and unapologetic. It is where I bought and built this website, and where I first opened a Word document and began typing what became an 82,000-word tribute to Tranmere Rovers.

It is where I discovered myself and where I found the courage to be that person without pretence. 

On the same day that I started writing the Planet Prentonia book, I also penned this poem, sat in the corner of that thriving powerhouse of ideas. I would like to share it with you as a display of gratitude to the Baltic Social, which continues to be the hub of my escapism.

The Triangle

Woke up again,
Same old mind smog,
Same old thought fog.
 
Down to the cobbles,
Out through The Triangle
Of schemes and dreams and free ideas.
 
Into that Social space,
That vibrant, fertile cooperative place.
That capsule of hope,
That release from the grind…
 
There’s time to think here.
There’s room to breathe and plan and type.
Coffee, black
Moretti at two
Just another Wednesday lost.
 
Nameless writers, faceless poets
Bearded rockstars with a dozen fans.
 
Beanie hats and Kanken bags…
Ubiquitous military overshirts.
The lost and lonely,
Hurt and yearning
Why does it all seem too late?
 
Who’s that lad in the corner?
A MacBook, white Sambas
Anxious eyes of too much potential.
 
Lingering, lurking,
Then out to old Jamaica Street.
Back into the wind, chilled to the neck.
Another day anonymous,
Onwards towards death.

21.02.19

💭💭💭

Get the Planet Prentonia book

Planet Prentonia: The Real Story of Tranmere Rovers is available now, in paperback and Kindle eBook formats, from Amazon. Click here to purchase your copy.


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