Talking Myself Home
The life story is that of John and Olive’s son, the Bard of Barnsley, from Low Valley Junior School and Wath Grammar School to Oscar the Frog (Barnsley’s first folk-rock band) and Jaws ( Barnsley ’s first folk-poetry duo) and beyond. A life lived with words at its core.  

“In some ways it’s a tiny life; a few ripples in a pond far from the centre of things, a few lines written in celebration and commemoration of places and times that deserve better. In another way it’s a shout of hope, that we can find the centre anywhere and celebrate it.”

Ian's latest book, The Richard Matthewman Stories, pub. Pomona. 
For a Yorkshireman who has spent half a lifetime in his native pit village, moving south is a mixed blessing and it is where Richard Matthewman's memories begin as he looks back with affection, humour, and no small measure of exasperation at 42 summers - and bitter winters.

From boyhood through adolescence to marriage and a family, his stories are filled with a rich gallery of characters - the relations, friends and village notables of a vital community filled with life and incident but as brittle and unmistakably northern as the coal seams on which it was built.