Former Harborough man’s poetry swaps ‘manning up’ for emotional wellbeing

A former Harborough resident has penned a book of poems aimed at men after hearing the phrase ‘man up’ all too often.

Mark Webb, a.k.a The Beardy Bloke, has published a book of 25 poems with topics ranging from pets, booze and unicorns to mums and teachers.

The 44-year-old, a former pupil of Welland Park and Robert Smyth academies, said the concept behind ‘Poems by a Beardy Bloke’ was to encourage men to open up more to their loved ones and peers.

Mark said: “I work at an inner city college and see so many young men being told to ‘man up’, when actually what they need to do is talk about what is bothering them.”

However, in his bid to indirectly appeal to male buyers, the poet discovered women also enjoyed his prose.

He added: “Men don't buy or pick up poetry books so I shared them with my female friends and colleagues. They loved them, not only as good poetry, but because of the challenging topics, and because they recognised their fathers, husbands and sons in the verses.”

The book, inspired in part by his young daughter, took Mark around two and a half years to put together, with each poem taking around four months to write.

He added: “The other element of my book is that, at the back, I have included my rambling thoughts and explained exactly why I wrote each of the poems.”

Poems by a Beardy Bloke is available to buy on Amazon.