A WHIRLWIND of writing saw an Ulverston poet pen his latest book about the life of one of Britain's greatest authors.

'On Keeping Company With Virginia Woolf' is the latest publication of highly respected local author, Neil Curry.

A collection of 50 short poems the work imagines a correspondence between Mr Curry and Virginia Woolf.
He said: "The structure of is Virginia and I visit each other's times and find that we strike up a close friendship. It features 50 short-ish poems covering topics that interest both of us. Her ideas on fiction, ideas on women.

"I've always loved her novels and re-reading 'To The Lighthouse' for the third time as I was spending a week at Buckfast Abbey [in Devon]. I was sitting down writing a poem about some one walking past the water. I thought about this as almost like her suicide.

"I thought this was a new idea and it just took off. The poems just kept coming. I wrote 30 in two years."

Virginia Woolf rose to prominence during the early 20th century. A member of the Bloomsbury Group she released 'To The Lighthouse', recognised now as a masterpiece of modernist literature.

Dogged throughout her life with mental health problems, Woolf took her own life aged just 59, drowning herself in the River Ouse in Sussex.

This was a sharp departure from his usual style of writing. Ordinarily his work will develop over a long period of time, but this flurry of activity came completely out of the blue.

Unlike other authors Mr Curry is not one who believes in being struck by inspiration.

He said: "I don't believe in inspiration I believe in hard work. I just don't know, if I could explain these things writing would be easy."

'On Keeping Company With Virginia Woolf' is published by Shoestring Press, and is available to buy now.