A couple of years ago, Burrows suffered a mental breakdown. With his mental health at an all-time low he contemplated suicide. As part of his recovery he threw himself into writing his book the Rotten Apples Comedy Club. Deciding he wanted to laugh more he scrapped 15,000 words of the book he had originally conceived as horror and re-wrote it as a dark comedy. Rotten Apples is about four comedians who have one more opportunity to make it big in the U.K. It tackles mental health issues and writing it became Burrows’ therapy for two years.

G.G. Burrows is a photographer and writer who works for the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. His ‘Magpie’ project, which follows the lives of ten children with ASD has been widely published and exhibited at the Senedd. Burrows was part of the ‘Men Open Up’ exhibit for the mental health charity ‘CALM.’ His first novel, ‘Rotten Apples Comedy Club,’ was released in late 2019, and he is currently writing his next book. In 2018 he published a book of short horror stories ‘Tales of Latham’ based in Abergavenny. He writes under the name ‘G.G Burrows’, and for photography uses the name ‘Glenn Dene.’

Claire Williamson has been a writing for wellbeing facilitator, working in a range of social and healthcare settings, for over twenty years. She is Programme Leader of Metanoia Institute’s MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes, and author of four poetry books, the latest is Visiting the Minotaur (Seren, 2018).