By Greg Ritchie
April 17 2020, 21.55
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Two Kingston mums have written a book of poems documenting the hopes, fears and mundanities of life under coronavirus lockdown.
Terri Stockley-Hetherington, 42, of Chessington and Kellie Pocock, 49, of Surbiton were texting on a Sunday evening when inspiration struck.
The duo, who have known each for about ten years, worked so quickly that within a week they had produced a collection of almost 50 poems, featuring a front page illustrated by Ms Pocock’s son Oscar.
“I sent her a poem I had started but not finished and a few minutes later she sent me a poem back,” said Ms Stockley-Hetherington.
“Before long we had quite a few and I thought they were awesome, so I suggested we publish them.”
The poems cover everything from toilet roll shortages to Boris Johnson, home schooling to Piers Morgan – subjects which they hope readers can relate to in this unprecedented time.
“We don’t want the poems to come across as if we are taking this pandemic lightly because that couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Ms Pocock.
“But sometimes we all need a little bit of humour to help us through tough times.”
A Virus of Verses About a Virus is available to order online in paperback or on Kindle.
Photo shows Ms Stockley-Hetherington, left, and Ms Pocock.
