THREE Islanders have had their poetry published in a new anthology.

Collette de la Mare, Carol Ozouf (pictured) and Ann Nicolle have all had their work included in Freedom’s Kiss, which, according to publishers United Press, is to be distributed nationwide in two months time.

Collette (56), began writing poems as leaving presents for colleagues at Barclays after she joined the company in 1987. And earlier this year she decided to put her work to the test after spotting an advert in the JEP for amateur poems.

Collette entered three poems into the competition – Posh Nosh, Treena The Cleaner and Oh Hell Aunty’s Not Well, which she was inspired to write after her Aunt, Sheila Nicolle, fell ill three years ago. Collette, a grandmother from Grève d’Azette, said: ‘I wasn’t going to enter the competition but my Aunty said that I should have a go. It was the poem about my Aunty which was chosen for the book.
‘Fortunately she is a lot better now and celebrated her 86th birthday last month. She has been a real inspiration to me over the years.’
 
Carol (36), from St Aubin, said that she had started writing because it helped her to make sense of the different emotions she felt when looking back over her life. ‘I felt that the only way to really get them out was to write about them. I started writing three years ago and I have started again in the past couple of months.’

She said that she had never had the confidence to write at school, but was delighted to have had her poems recognised by the publishers. ‘It feels really good,’ she said. ‘I have had a few years of bad luck and have been signed off with a bad back, so this is a really positive thing.’

The recognition she has received has also encouraged her to write more verse. ‘I have always wanted to write a book, but I have never known where to start,’ she said. ‘Poetry is a fun way of getting it out. I think it would take me forever to write a book, but I find poetry to be a great way of expressing myself.’