AFTER producing two poetry books in two years, a retired midwife waited 22 years to deliver her latest volume.

Pensioner Isabel Price has been writing the 21 poems in her new collection Beliefs and Memories for at least 15 years and is pleased they are being snapped up by her fans.

She dedicated her first book in 1980 to her home town Bishop Auckland, calling it Testimony to My Town, and followed it up two years later with A Woman's Heart.

She writes in a traditional style and often chooses historical figures and issues for her subjects.

She said: "My style is civilised, with lines that rhyme and scan and I describe myself as a vivid, lyric poet.

"I have dedicated my book to John Masefield, the Poet Laureate. The people who know and like my poems will enjoy it."

Mrs Price, 78, whose late husband Ken was a professional actor and electrician at Bishop Auckland College, was a health visitor in the Shildon area after qualifying as a midwife in Sunderland.

She is an occasional contributor to The Northern Echo as well as a member of the Wear Valley Writers Group and is constantly looking for new topics.

She said: "I write when I have something to say so that might be why I have taken so long to publish my book."

Beliefs and Memories is £4 from Mrs Price at 6 Bamburgh Avenue, Bishop Auckland. DL14 6NF.