POEMS about musicians, football stars and yoghurt are included in the latest book by a North-East university lecturer and writer.

Alistair Robinson, the degree programme leader for journalism at Sunderland University, is launching his second poetry collection next week – and it takes an offbeat look at popular culture.

The book is The Land Before Yoghurt, published by Red Squirrel Press.

Alistair, who lives in South Shields, says the title of the work comes from a brief poem in which he looks back to his childhood.

“The title doesn’t have great significance for the collection as a whole – I just liked the daft sound of it,” he admits.

“The poem refers to the 1960s when many of the things we take for granted today were simply not available. For instance, I remember being puzzled by yoghurt when it first turned up in supermarkets.

“There are a few poems in the book which look at the past – but not in any rose-tinted way. It’s kind of anti-nostalgic in parts.”

Alistair’s first volume of poetry, South of Souter, was published as a chapbook in 2003. His first full-length collection, Stereograms of the Dead, came out in 2009. In 2004 he won a Northern Promise Award for his poetry from New Writing North.

The book is available from redsquirrelpress.com