I HAVE had to go back to my work roots this week – joke writing for Christmas content.

My first ever piece of commercial writing was a Purple Ronnie humorous card because someone decided to give me a chance in writing for them for a range of cards that hadn’t yet hit the market but was forecasted to be BIG. And it was. Huge. And through me writing those cards for pin money, it led on to me being a professional joke and rhyme writer for the industry for many years.

Sadly we all thought the good days would last forever, but it led me onto writing books and I wouldn’t be anywhere else. My point being that the man who gave me a chance didn’t have to, because they had

enough content really and he didn’t know me from Adam, but he did it out of the kindness of his heart. And how far that kindness went. Sadly, he was a manic depressive and ending up killing himself in a terrible way, even though he had everything on a list you need to be happy: beautiful wife, kids, more money than he could spend, success.

It does show you that there is no such thing as a small kindness because some little ‘favours’ have the power in them to grow into a flower, some to the size of Jack’s beanstalk, as in my case, but they are all much bigger than they may first seem.

I think of him often, he was a lovely bloke, we became good friends and yet I never knew what he was hiding because he was always so buoyant and upbeat.

Minds can be very fragile and he was kinder to others than he was to himself. We must remember to be kind to ourselves too.

Can anyone explain to me, in English (ironically) why Chloe Kelly, after the nail-biting footy final on Sunday, made the news for having the nerve to say that she was proud to be English?

She had just played her lioness heart out on the pitch for England and she had every right to be proud of playing for her national team. She wasn’t playing for Britain, she was playing for England. Only in this barmy nation are we frowned upon from being proud of our heritage, of flying our flag.

Every country’s flag is indicative of their chequered history – and they’ve all got those, many many far worse than ours. Flying a flag does not change the past. But national pride should remind us of the good things about us.

Do not take it away from those ladies, do not rob them of their pride, do not rob us of having something in the news to raise our fists for and punch the air with joy and celebrate good news because my god we need some and it was like a drink of iced water on a parched throat. They gave us all so much more than a win.

If this lovely summery weather (inbetween the thunderstorms) has got you in the mood for a cream scone, then the Priory Centre on Pontefract Road is having an afternoon tea on September 10th 2-4.30pm with entertainment.

Dodgy entertainment in the fact that it’s going to be me, but it will be lovely, a proper treat, a bit of cheer and good food in a place with lots of parking. So do think about buying a ticket. You can find how to get the tickets on my social media pages or just Google Eventbrite and my name and it will come up

Be lovely to see you all there.