Keith Walton

Born in 1945, after university and a year as a Town Planner I worked variously as hospital porter, college lecturer, bookshop assistant and jewellery maker before spending two years in rural France working on our own smallholding, a rewarding but financially unsuccessful venture.

Back in England, I worked as a carpenter in Dorset while reading my poems at poetry cafés and festivals. After several were published in small magazines, fellow-writer Sebastian Hayes and I founded Brimstone Press, at first to publish our own work, then extending it to others as a co-operative way to self-publish. We published my poetry collection, First Cut in 2004.

A novel, Diggers and Dreamers, based on my experiences in France, was published in 2006. Dionysos’ Island, set in Greece, followed in 2012, and a novella, The Divided Wood, in 2016.

In 2015 I cycled across France along la méridienne verte. My account was published in 2018 as In Search of France’s Green Meridian: a serpentine cycle ride from Dunkirk to the Pyrenees.

In 2019 I moved back to my home city of Lancaster and began writing Letters from Lancaster on my website keithwaltonwriter.com. The site also has stories, including my prize-winning A Bonfire of Vanities, and essays on Leonard Cohen, Herman Melville & Bob Dylan, Buddy Holly, and others. I am working on a sequel to Dionysos’ Island, called Odysseos’ Island.

Keith's books with Brimstone Press: