Emily Inspires

I entered a competition, to write something about Emily Wilding Davison, the suffragette from Northumberland who was killed by jumping in front of the King's horse at Epsom.
I decided to write a ballad, quite unlike my normal style, as I thought that this would best capture Emily's voice.
There was a local and a national category to the competition and 200 people entered the national one. There were 3 winners and 2 people received Highly Commended. One of them was me!
I managed to make it to the play about her life that was staged in the local leisure centre (it was only a few days after my last operation) and my poem was on display. I was very happy.
The woman who won the competition was also there. We have a mutual friend and I admire her writing very, very much. She asked if I wanted to meet up, as she would like to discuss my writing. All in all, a very exciting evening.
I received a little prize of book tokens and I've bought Kathleen Jamie's "Sightlines" - a series of essays about perspective. It's one of the best books I've ever read.