“Revealing insights into my personal heritage.” That is how well-known Drogheda-based poet Roger Hudson describes the poems from his latest collection Hidden in Green. 

Roger will be sharing his personal heritage publicly at 11am on Wednesday 17th August in the atmospheric surroundings of Highlanes Gallery in Laurence Street to mark Heritage Week. Admission free. A rare opportunity to hear Roger’s expressive voice bring his creations and memories to life. 

“I find a major subject for my poems is my own eventful life, especially my childhood, family and parents – my own personal heritage” Roger said.

“But how much of the person that is me has been shaped by my inheritance of characteristics and behaviour from my parents and how much by the circumstances of my childhood and early life? 

“My poems explore this and more and will maybe prompt listeners to think about their own personal heritage and how it has shaped them and their lives. 

“I grew up in a country village in Surrey, England, as an evacuee from blitz-battered London during World War II – an outsider in a boy’s wonderland of woods, fields and streams, balancing between fear and beauty. 

“Then I became a scholarship boy in a grammar school in the nearby town, National Service and university – all strange alien worlds. At university, my real learning was done outside the official course on college newspaper and drama society. And that’s just for starters.” 

As well as four books of poems, Roger has read and performed in many venues and festivals in Ireland, on his own and with other poets and actors, with musicians and as drama including four experimental poetry events in this gallery. 

Roger expressed his sincere thanks to Aoife Ruane of Highlanes Gallery for inviting himto give this reading, to David Newton for selecting the poems in the book, to Garry Maguire for the cover design and Larry Staudt that of the text pages.