About

Poppy Radcliffe – Activist, Poet, Aerospace Engineer

Whilst I would not wish my life on anyone, I hope that by sharing it, I can bring solace to some.

“Poppy is an inspirational writer who strives for excellence in education, work and in her private life. A shy but upfront writer who pushes the boundaries of life and living, somehow making the unacceptable acceptable with radical thought and truth of a life experience some would dream of or dread in having. Her creative flair always keeps her audience on the edge, anticipating what’s in the next sentence. A playful, whimsical and loving content shows itself within her creations that show her passion about love, life and relationships.”
Hollis Dixon

Poppy Radcliffe is a poet, aerospace engineer, occasional model and wannabe mental health activist. She believes that the way we handle mental health at the moment keeps people ill and prevents them from living full active and productive lives. Having had eight years of lived experience of inpatient mental health when she has felt it was not necessary and years of crushing lows where she could have done with support that was not forthcoming she is a voice to be reckoned with.

In 2023 Poppy will debut her show SECTIONED at the Edinburgh free festival coming from a series of very successful open mic nights and two full length previews at the Lytton Theatre in Stevenage. The show is a selection of her poems by her collection of the same name interwoven with a narrative of the events that inspired them.

Poppy is collecting a string of mental health diagnoses. She is autistic having self diagnosed a decade before it was officially recognised. Comfortable with having found an explanation as to why she always felt slightly different, she did not feel the need to seek a formal diagnosis for many years and had a very successful neurodivergent life. This changed in 2016 when it was decreed that she was bi-polar, not agreeing with the diagnosis she pushed the autism narrative but because her social skills, or mask to use the popular term were so developed she hit great resistance in getting any professional to believe her. After three years of trying she finally received her official diagnosis and 5 years after that would also be diagnosed with ADHD. She does not recognise bi-polar as an issue she has always lived with and believed it is a problem made and exacerbated by the mental health services though admits she exhibits symptoms these days to the point that she rather unfashionably believes in God, or Gods, or the matrix or at least some form of supernatural.

Poppy has been trying to write a book for several years, she has never got very far with it, but two of the intros can be found on this site. With working titles such as The Reluctant Activist (If the author of The reluctant fundamentalist will allow me) and SECTIONED: Evidence of Gods?

She is just getting started on her journey as an artist and creative, she is aware this website is not excellent or finished and will work on it in time.