POTTY Poet and children's author Gez Walsh has published 12 books in seven years since first bursting on the scene with The Spot On My Bum. He's launching No 12 - Mum, The Dog's Drunk Again! - with a signing session at W H Smith's in Huddersfield on Saturday, September 4. The Dalton joiner, who became a social worker then a writer, has now sold over 100,000 copies of his major work The Spot, making it one of the UK's best-selling poetry books. Not only that, he created more of a demand for his special brand of kid-friendly poetry - the sort that's high on bodily functions and other unmentionables and strikes a chord with otherwise reluctant readers. It has turned into a mini-industry with other writers drawn in by Rotherham publishers The King's England Press to meet demand. Gez's popularity is evident in his invitations to festivals, libraries, schools and summer literacy events. Three of his books have been adventure stories in his Celtic Chronicles series and there's also in Fax 4 U: Drugs a concise yet humorous guide which won Home Office approval. And he also "goes straight" with the last poem of his current 64-page collection with a poem highlighting the effects of bereavement. For the rest, it's the grotty mixture as before in a book written and illustrated by Gez and sub-titled Horribly Potty Poems For Horribly Horrid Kids. It delivers what it says on the cover. * Mum, The Dog's Drunk Again! by Gez Walsh, published by The King's England Press costs £4.50. | 
