A POET from Wilmslow who took a break from providing tax advice to try her hand at prose has had her work published.

Lisa O'Hare, who launched her debut poetry collection 'Lockdown Life, a Rollercoaster of Emotions' on May 31, only started writing and performing her work in 2019.

In an exclusive chat with the Guardian, 45-year-old Lisa explained how that career break two years ago was the springboard to what she hopes can be a new vocation.

"It's not a very obvious leap from tax to poetry," she said.

"I took a career break for a few months and in that time decided to do something a bit different so I put on a one woman show at the Manchester Fringe.

"That led me to meeting a lot of people around the spoken word scene in Manchester and then on to doing some open mic evenings.

"From there I've managed to meet lots of amazing people doing poetry and spoken word."

Knutsford Guardian: Lisa O'Hare has published a collection of lockdown related poetry

Lisa said she is excited to have her first collection of poetry published

Lisa admits that jumping straight from a job providing tax advice to putting on a one woman show on a stage such as the Manchester Fringe was a massive one and puts it down to a mixture of naivety and ambition.

She went on: "At the time of my career break I wasn't able to travel the world and I wanted to just do something else that was big and I could be proud of.

"It was only one show, but it was the fact it led me to so much else.

"I've learnt so much and it led me to other people who do know what they're doing.

"I had no idea about how the industry worked and I just went in very naively but in a way it was nice as there was no pressure."

From her ever growing list of contacts from the open mic scene, which continued over Zoom during lockdown, Lisa was able to showcase her work to like minded souls, which has now led to her first book being published.

Knutsford Guardian: Lisa O'Hare has published a collection of lockdown related poetry

The process of writing during lockdown allowed Lisa to switch off from the news.

"During lockdown a lot of the open mic and spoke word events went online," she added.

"So I kept writing and it was a really nice way of keeping in touch with people.

"I got to hear their experiences and I also found the act of writing took me away from the news and thinking how awful everything was.

"So the book contains poems that are a reflection of the whole of that year.

"There are poems about not being able to go trick or treating on Halloween, and spending Christmas alone without your friends and family.

"So it's all very relatable to everything that happened during lockdown."

Lisa's book has been published by Master House, a new pressing company that was only established at the beginning of the year.

"It was a lady I knew from the open mic's I'd been attended.

"She told she would love to publish my work because she'd seen a lot of what I had been doing online.

"It all happened quite quickly off the back of that conversation so it's all quite exciting."

'Lockdown Life, a Rollercoaster of Emotions' is available to buy from masterhousepublishing.com, Waterstones and Amazon.