About Pep the Poet
My mission is to ‘Deliver poetry workshops that get children talking, writing and performing.’
About Pep the Poet:
Hello, I’m David Anderson, better known as Pep the Poet.
I’m a performance poet, children’s author and former primary school teacher and Senco based in Staffordshire. I have over 35 years of experience in Education with twenty of them as a teacher and five as a deputy headteacher, so classrooms have been a big part of my life.
I’ve written five children’s poetry collections, full of silliness, unusual characters and things that probably wouldn’t happen anywhere except in my imagination. I love playing with words and seeing what happens when children are given permission to do the same.
My favourite moments are often the unexpected ones: a reluctant writer finding an idea they can’t wait to put on paper, or a quiet child deciding they’re ready to share a poem aloud. Having been a teacher, I know how much those moments can mean.
Well-being matters to me too. I want children to feel welcome, valued and comfortable being themselves. For me, laughter, encouragement and a shared poem are lovely places to start.
Away from poetry, I enjoy reading, gardening, writing poetry, taking walks in the countryside and spending time with my family.
How it all started:
In the summer of 1981, just before my 18th birthday, I was on holiday with friends in Newquay, Cornwall. As we walked into town, one of them looked up and said:
“Have you seen the size of the sparrows down here in Cornwall?”
We all looked at him, rather puzzled.
“If they came to Rugeley, our sparrows would beat them all in a fight.”
I found this hilarious. It also set off a train of thought. Were sparrows territorial? Did they speak in different accents? Did they eat different foods? And if that was true of sparrows, what about worms and insects?
Before long, my imagination had given spiders Geordie accents, bumblebees Birmingham accents and worms Scottish accents. Ants and tadpoles came from Liverpool, wasps from London, earwigs from the West Country and centipedes from Dublin.
Those ideas stayed in my head for almost three decades before I began turning them into poems. Fortunately, I can do most of the accents too, so the characters have found their voices as well as their way onto the page.
All thanks to a friend who thought Rugeley sparrows were tougher than Cornish ones.
My family of poets
Poetry has been in my family for generations. Although unpublished, my mother was a great poet and my sister too. You could say poetry is in our DNA.
This goes all the way back to my great-great-grandfather David Anderson, who was a weaver and poet in the small Ayrshire town of West Kilbride in Scotland. My most cherished possession is one of his poetry books, dating back almost 150 years to 1867.
For over five decades I didn't use this God-given talent because I believed my poems weren’t good enough. I suffered massively from Imposter Syndrome and convinced myself I wasn't good enough. In my late fifties, I learned that FEAR TELLS LIES and my life took off.
My time as a Deputy Head Teacher
Within my work, I discuss my journey of discovery from a very dark place (where self-centred fear and anxiety ruled my life) to the beautifully enriched life that I live today.
I enjoyed a long career in education, building up to a role as a Deputy Head Teacher. However, a long time of not looking after my mental health ended up in a nervous breakdown.
That time took me to some dark places, but it is the lessons I learned through that journey that have given me my passion and excitement to save others from experiencing the same thing as I did.
My life and work today
My incredible wife Paula has been my partner through the ups and downs. She supported me through my recovery, and is the reason I'm still here.
I started my Pep the Poet business to share my experiences with people, to tell people that fear tells lies and we need to look after our mental health.
Poetry is one of my favourite ways to communicate, so I use it to talk about my experiences in a fun way. I love helping others express themselves too.
