Kelly showing off her books. Pic: Claudia Kelly

A Catford woman has successfully published her second volume of poetry while suffering with mental health problems.

This is the second anthology in the series, Garnished With Words.

Author Claudia Kelly, 47, has been diagnosed with severe depression, anxiety and borderline personality disorder (BPD), but this hasn’t stopped her writing.

Although suffering with mental health problems since the age of 19, she started writing ‘accidentally’ five years ago when a close friend died.

Kelly said: “My writing took off from there. It has kept me from falling off the edge, and it has now given me a purpose.”

The writer has so far written over 900 poems and wants to help others access “closed parts of their mind”.

She says she has more ideas for future publications of her poems, adding that she has enough content for another six books.

Her work has been hailed as offering readers “escapism as both a commentary and a celebration of our past, present and future”.  According to the book’s publicity it “delves into the themes we face as a society such as: racism, love, greed, violence and perseverance”.

You can find Claudia’s Garnished with Words here.