Steve Williams: the Poet Laureate of Lancashire

Rober t Southey, William Wordsworth, John Betjeman, Ted Hughes and now... Steve Williams. It’s august company for a teacher who was brought up in Wigan but Steve is now a Poet Laureate.

And he has gone one better than the others who have held the title – he has been made Poet Laureate of Lancashire.

It was an appointment made by Philip North, chair of the Friends of Real Lancashire (FoRL), who said: ‘I found some of Steve’s poems online and then bought his book and I really enjoyed reading it. It is poetry that’s very easy to relate to, and it’s funny as well.

‘I looked into it and it seems we’ve never had a Poet Laureate from Lancashire so I thought maybe we could appoint our own – and we have become the first historic county to do so.’ But English teacher Steve is a little uneasy about the title.

‘I ended up with this tag that’s really quite embarrassing,’ he says. ‘Poet in residence would be more appropriate.’

Except it wouldn’t. In a controversial move, Lancashire’s first Poet Laureate lives in North Yorkshire. ‘I moved over here for work,’ says Steve, who teaches English at a school in Selby but has retained his Lancashire accent. ‘I was born in Liverpool, brought up in Wigan and went to school in Bolton. All my family are still in Lancashire and I spend a lot of time there.’

Before he qualified as a teacher in the late 1990s, Steve worked at a graphic design agency in Manchester and wrote some light-hearted sketches about his colleagues.

‘That’s where my writing began,’ he says. ‘Then I started to see modern poets on the internet and that really inspired me to have a go.

‘I was writing for myself, really, and then did some things for weddings and funerals and I started putting a few poems on Facebook and people started to follow me so I wrote for them, and then I started to get some commissions.

‘It became apparent I might be able to self-publish a book and things sort of spiralled. And then Philip got in touch and mentioned the idea of the Poet Laureate – it's mad really, but to be honest, I’m just in it for a bit of a giggle and maybe get some bookings from it.’

And he adds: ‘I like to write funny stuff – I often start with a punchline or a twist and work back from there, or maybe I’ll start with a title.

A Midsummer's Ice Cream by Lancashire Poet Laureate by Steve Williams ‘My writing is always inoffensive, family-friendly and hopefully funny. I’ve done funerals, birthdays and tributes and I’ve had a few commissions. I put a book out called A Midsummer’s Ice Cream - and I’ve sold about 500 copies and I’m now working on a second book.

‘The book I'm working on now is called First Drafts and it’s a collection of re-workings of songs – the Michael Jackson song Billy Jean becomes Billy’s Jeans, Take That’s Back for Good is Back for t’Dog. They’re all a bit daft and quite childish, but it’s stuff that makes me laugh.

‘I feel quite proud to entertain people – some miss, some hit, but I have a pretty thick skin.

‘My pupils are slightly aware of my poetry and the odd one gets hold of my work occasionally. I write silly things for the staff noticeboard now and then too, but I need to pay the bills, so I won’t be giving up the day job and becoming full-time writer any time soon.’

And FoRL chair Philip added: ‘The national Poet Laureate traditionally receives a barrel of sherry but we’re going to present Steve with some Lancashire goodies, such as Blackpool rock, Morecambe Bay shrimps, Bury black pudding and Eccles cakes.’

To mark his appearance in the magazine, Steve wrote this poem about Lancashire Life.

LANCASHIRE LIVES

An old friend in the dentist’s waiting room.

Familiar face by showroom’s comfy seats.

A mirror to our county’s everyday: From endless golden sands to city streets.

Here, the stepping stones across the Hodder.

Enchanting cover shot of Pendle Hill.

Southport’s Flower Show, in blooming colour;

A mum and daughter trip to Boundary Mill.

Dripping ice-creams flank the Sunday bandstand;

Modernity, tradition, front to back.

See dinner jacket, ball-gown and bow tie