Joy’s first novel – ‘Morgan’

Former Cheshire Poet Laureate, Joy Winkler, has published her first novel ‘Morgan’ – to be launched at the Button Warehouse, Stanley Street, on August 19 at 7.30 p.m.

Joy’s story follows Morgan, who, after being abandoned by her parents, grows up believing she’s an evil child.

Joy, who was named Cheshire Poet Laureate in 2005, said she was inspired by the way experiences, during childhood, shape people.

She said: “The idea came from family experiences of my own and the way family stories are told by individuals.

“But most people experience the fact that different members of the family experience different aspects of the same story because we all see things from our own point of view.

“Morgan believes she’s an evil child because she has red hair and she’s called Morgan – because King Arthur’s half-sister, Morgan, was an evil character.”

Morgan reconnects with her family through her blind grandmother Grace, where family secrets are then revealed.

“She comes back into contact with her family through her blind grandmother and finds out about her distant family that way, but the grandmother dies and she feels it was her responsibility,” said Joy.

“Stories are everything to her, family stories to books or mythology, so she becomes a schoolteacher and tries to pass her love of stories on to the children.

“Members of the family reveal their own stories and lead to a kind of redemption at the end.”

Joy’s writing career began as a poet and previously taught creative writing workshops to the female prisoners at HMP Styal. She is currently writer in residence at Tatton Park, holding writing workshops and says she enjoyed using these poetic elements in her novel.

“I like to challenge myself to use different forms,” said Joy.

“This novel is another way of challenging myself and I have really enjoyed doing it and found things out about my own writing.

“I look at life in kind of a weird way, I see imagery in everything around me. So part of the novel where I have characters like the ‘skeletons in the cupboard’ who are poetic, have a poetic influence on the novel.”

Joy said it took the pandemic for her to write the book, after having the idea for a while, and added that her husband John had also written a novel during lockdown.

She said: “It’s been in the drawer for a long time but the pandemic was an opportunity to do something with it and get it finished so it’s one of the good things to come out of a horrible time. It’s been brilliant.”

The book will be available from Amazon or Kindle or by emailing Joy at: joywinkler@sky.com.