NEWS RELEASE 27/8/2009

Wandering bard Keith Armstrong aka 'The Jingling Geordie' is keeping himself busy. Indeed, he has his hands full with a host of new projects.

Currently poet-in-residence for Newcastle United fanzine 'True Faith', he is planning to publish a selection of his footie verse in 2010.

A new selection of his poetry' Castle Stair Reel' is soon to be published in the States by Baltimore-based 'Hutman Productions'. The selection homes in again on his native North East England to reveal both its sunny and dark sides. As usual, this rootedness is tempered by his strong internationalism with poetry on places as diverse as Berlin, Limerick, Kenya, Tuebingen and Edinburgh. All in all, the new book is an album of songs inspired by Armstrong's strong sense of place, wherever he may be located.

And his biography of Newcastle writer Jack Common, new from the University of Sunderland Press, launches in October with events at Newcastle Central Library on October 17th and at the University of Durham on October 21st.

Also on the publishing front, he's currenty editing a book on the heritage of North Tyneside with the support of North Tyneside Council and Awards for All. Due out at Xmas this one.

When 'Jingling Geordie' is not writing and publishing, he's on reading tours. September sees him giving poetry readings in Ireland, with Groningen City Poet Rense Sinkgraven, and on the Isle of Man, where he delivers his verse on painter John Martin, born in Haydon Bridge but dying on the Isle of Man in 1854.

His links with Groningen, twinned with Newcastle, and Tuebingen, twinned with Durham, continue with visits by Armstrong in 2010 and exchange visits by his Dutch and German counterparts.

In November, Doctor Armstrong's back in Prague.

Finally, his dedicated work on socialist pioneer Thomas Spence comes to fruition in 2010, with the unveiling of a blue plaque on Newcastle's Quayside and related events on Spence's 260th birthday.

Enough to be going on with!


FURTHER INFO: NORTHERN VOICES TEL. 0191 2529531