gailtaplin

Kevan Taplin


About

Failed scholar.
Failed teacher.
Failed poet.
Failed husband.
Failed father.
Failed rugby player.
Failed acoustic guitarist.
Failed novelist.
Failed busker at Banksy’s Dismal World

Remaining ambition : To turn failure into an art form!

In some ways I had a poor experience of formal education, failing the eleven plus and being placed in what was effectively the special needs stream (this before special needs were effectively ‘invented’). However hard work, support from my parents and an inmate belief that I was not ”thick’, saw me become the first of my family and school to gain a place at higher education and eventually study for my Masters degree. I was lucky to both meet and work with Roger Mcgough and Adrian Henri who gave the confidence not only for a dyslexic start writing poetry but to use both imagery and experience from that background. I believe that everyone should be able to access this broad ‘church’ which is poetry and that it still needs to more accessible to ‘ordinary

Books by Kevan Taplin