Joe Waddle’s well versed in what’s so great about living in Newcastle

The Newcastle Chronicle has teamed up with The Halifax, Metro Radio and TFM Radio to explore what home means to the people of the city. We'll be celebrating the special places in people's lives and sharing those stories of home with #HalifaxLoveYourHome. Every week between now and Sunday 24 June 2018, one lucky person will be chosen by the judges to win £500 for sending in the best story.

This week’s winner is former primary school teacher Joe Waddle. He says the peaceful Northumberland home he shares with wife Jude and daughter, Caitlin, provides the perfect inspiration for his writing, and his evocative poem really captures the meaning of home...

I’m a creative person and I love writing - I’ve penned poems, songs and even self-published a novel - and home is where I get a lot of inspiration. I actually come from a very sporty family. My younger brother Chris was a professional footballer who played for Newcastle and England.

I wasn’t a bad sportsman but not brilliant and packed football in when I was quite young. My wife Jude and I moved to Bedlington 14 years ago. It’s a former mining town but it’s so peaceful and quiet. We turned our spare bedroom into a study and it’s where I wrote my Kindle book On the Up, two years ago.

It was something I always wanted to do. The study is not the only place I like to get a bit creative. At Christmas we like to decorate the house so we’ll usually have two Christmas trees – a big 6ft one in the living room and another 4ft one in the conservatory.

And we also like to have parties every now and again. Of course, being from a football family we’ve had the odd World Cup celebration in the garden! Despite that, when it comes to day-to-day decoration, I’m an absolute minimalist. Our living room has a TV, two sofas, a coffee table and a few pictures hanging up.