Verses on the Sussex country

Eartham: Poems Of Past And Present comes from William Foot (self-published through John Aubin Books, £9.99, available through Amazon and booksellers).

William, aged 77, who lives in Walberton, explained: “This is a book of poems I wrote mainly during the period of the Covid lockdowns 2020-21.

" Many of the poems are inspired by the landscape around the village of Eartham, near where I live.

"One of my great interests, in which I have been active over the years, both professionally and as an amateur digger and antiquarian,is archaeology, and a number of the poems reflect these enthusiasms. Some were inspired by local monuments, such as the Trun- dle and Stane Street; one is a commentary on the recent excavations of the Roman bath house in Priory Park, Chichester in which I took part; another similarlythe great mosaic uncovered recently at Boxford, Berkshire.

"A series of poems provides a commentary on the Ukraine war. I have written poetry all my life, but never before so profusely as during this period. They seemed to flow from me day after day!

"As I write in the book’s introduction, I have long been fascinated by a sense of the past trembling upon the present, and my poems are a way of giving expression to this.

" I publish the book to try and share such ideas with likeminded people. I may well put out a second volume in a couple of years. I have written non-fiction, largely about the military defence of Britain in 1940, which is published professionally. My fiction, five novels to date: the latest A Time to Fight, is all selfpublished.”