A RETIRED Plymouth businessman has made a turn for the verse.

Former antiques shop owner Brian Taylor's first book of poems contains works written over the last 40 years.

Brian, who lives in Millbrook, has self-published Blondin and Other Poems, which is available online. The volume isn't the first time some people will have seen them, though.

Brian often used to surprise customers and colleagues with poems.

His colourful working life took in the Royal Navy and teaching foreign languages at what was the Royal Pages College in Bangkok, Thailand.

Brian went on to lecture on Buddhism in New York and owned several antiques shops in Plymouth. The title poem is a reference to Charles Blondin, the 19th century French acrobat who was the first person to walk a tightrope across Niagara Falls.

Everyman is Blondin.

Every lifetime a rope,

Finer than a spider's thread, Sharper than a sword,

Stretched between birth and death

(Breath and breath)

Across Niagara.

Blondin and other Poems is available from www.waterstones.com at £9.96.