The Poets’ Wives

Sometimes a creative idea can arrive by pure chance. David Park had one of these lucky moments during the last days of his teaching career at Down High School in Downpatrick five years ago. It all started with William Blake.

The English poet, painter, and printmaker — whom Park had previously read, but had no expertise on — became a reading requirement for the class he was teaching. So the then full-time English teacher, and part-time writer, began reading Peter Ackroyd’s 1995 biography of the great Romantic visionary.