AN Old Hill poet has combined 20 years’ worth of his created verse and rhyme into his first ever book.

Nigel Goodwin has been writing poetry for a number of years, covering a range of different subjects.

But in July this year, the 53-year-old decided to compile more than two decades worth of his work into his debut poetry book – entitled ‘God First’.

Nigel, who is also a budding artist, songwriter and photographer, said: “I had quite a lot of them typed up on the computer so just thought why not have them published?

“So I set about separating them into subjects and sections and ended up with over 100 pages of poems covering a variety of topics.

“I called the book God First because the first chapter is Christian poetry, but I also cover other subjects, including life, love and nature.

“One poem in particular from the book that sticks in my mind is called ‘New Dawn’ which is all about the dawn breaking.

“I like the words that I used in that one as it has good sections of alliteration and has a message of how a new dawn can bring both excitement and fear.

“It took me about a month to put it all together, before I put it on Amazon for sale, which is good as they keep all the stock and then when someone buys it I get paid the royalties.

“The feedback I have received so far has been really positive. It has been bought by a lot of people at Holy Trinity Church as well as my friends, which is good as I haven’t done any promotion yet.”

Nigel, who has been living in Old Hill for the past 16 years, has many other pieces of work which are waiting to be published.

“I have lots more poems written, but they all need typing up and splitting into categories which is quite a time consuming process,” he said.

“Once I get round to typing them all up, maybe they can then go into book two.”

To purchase Nigel’s book of poetry, which costs £10, search ‘God First Nigel Goodwin’ on Amazon.