MAUREEN CULLEN
NEW RELEASE:
HAVOC SHORE
Maybe she should let the gale whisk her off the cliff into the Clyde at Havoc Shore, roll her down the Firth, into the Irish Sea and from there toss her like a cork into the Atlantic.
About the book
Spanning generations, Havoc Shore captures the voices of a shipbuilding town through its years of industry, struggle, and change. From 1954 to the present day, these 21 interwoven stories follow families bound by place, hardship, and resilience – navigating the tides of economic uncertainty, social upheaval, and personal triumph.
The McLean siblings each carry their own version of a life-altering event, revealing the fractures and fierce loyalties within a working-class family.
Isa McMenamin, mother of seven, stands her ground against bureaucracy, proving that sheer determination can shift the course of a community.
Dolly Deighan, daughter of an Italian immigrant once branded an outsider, stakes her claim to a future she never thought possible.
Throughout, neighbours, friends, and rivals cross paths in moments of humour, heartbreak, and quiet defiance.
Told in the Scots dialect of its people, Havoc Shore is a richly textured portrait of a community shaped by poverty, emigration, and survival. Against the backdrop of shifting politics and changing times, these are stories of love and loss, resilience and resistance — from voices that demand to be heard.
About
MAUREEN CULLEN
Maureen Cullen is a retired social worker living in Argyll & Bute. After thirty years’ commitment to social work, she turned to writing poetry and short fiction, completing a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from Lancaster University in 2015 and achieving a distinction. Maureen has had poetry published in multiple magazines and online webzines, and had a poetry conversation written with Patricia M Osborne, Sherry and Sparkly, published by the Hedgehog Press in 2021. She has been shortlisted in numerous short story competitions, including the V.S. Pritchett Prize, the Fish Prize, and the Bristol Prize. She also won the Labello Prize for short fiction in 2014, and the Ringwood Short Story competition in 2022.
POETRY
PRIMERS - VOLUME ONE
In 2015, The Poetry School and Nine Arches Press launched a nationwide scheme to find exciting new voices in poetry with Kathryn Maris as selecting editor. After reading through hundreds of entries, and narrowing down the choices from longlist to shortlist, four poets emerged as the clear winners: Geraldine Clarkson, Lucy Ingrams, Maureen Cullen and Katie Griffiths.
Primers Volume One now collects together these four selected poets. The brilliant chemistry of their poems proves to be a heady mix and a memorable trip – from war correspondents to social work, breath-taking natural landscapes to strange, unsettling dream-like narratives. There’s much here to delight and quietly dazzle, and plenty of evidence of a bright future for contemporary poetry as these striking new voices demonstrate.
“Sherry and Sparkly” –
Maureen Cullen & Patricia M Osborne
Maureen and Patricia grew up hundreds of miles from each other in different countries of the UK but share common experiences of childhood in the fifties and sixties when ice laced the inside of bedroom windows and corporal punishment was common in schools. They survived to become brides, mothers, career women and technophobes. Sometimes joyous, sometimes painful, these poems are a conversation about love, hope and identity.
Sherry & Sparkly is a Poetry Conversation between two fantastic poets – one you really want to listen in to.
Proceeds from the sale of this book direct from Patricia and Maureen is to be donated to Cancer Research
"A remarkable achievement, beautifully written, with strong memorable characters and a great plot. It's funny, sad, smart and tender..."
☆☆☆☆☆
EVENTS
