McMillan’s latest book of poems, Red River Valley, is about family life, everyday surrealism, and the effect of austerity on the village near Barnsley where he’s lived all his life.
Born in Darfield in 1956, the writer says his hometown continues to be “endlessly inspiring”.
“Every morning I get up at the crack of dawn and I go for my early morning stroll around the village that I’ve done for years and years.
“I try and test myself out when I get back by writing down five things that I’ve seen on the same walk every day that I’ve been walking since I was a child,” he says.
“Somebody said to me once, do you maintain a base in Barnsley? I said, yeah, I call it my house, to be honest with you.
“They assume that you live in Surrey. And, every now and then, you come up to your pied-à-terre in Barnsley.”
McMillan believes staying in South Yorkshire has given him a “long view” of the town, which has bounced back from the years of austerity in the 2010s.
“Barnsley has reinvented itself and people who have been away from Barnsley come back and see what’s happening, particularly in the centre of town, but also in the villages.
“There’s such a lot of regeneration, there’s such a lot of excitement. Taxi drivers will say things like, ‘do you know, they’re coming down from that Leeds for a night out in Barnsley’.
“There’s lots of excitement and regeneration at the moment and that’s got to be a good thing because austerity was a terrible thing, and Barnsley seems to have survived it and is thriving.”
