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Home / Lifestyle

Woman who posted beautiful poems on Instagram lands book deal

By Jessica Rach
Daily Mail·
6 Oct, 2018 08:36 PM6 mins to read

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The glamourous 26 year old draws from her love life to write beautiful traditional poetry. Photo / Instagram, Arch Hades

The glamourous 26 year old draws from her love life to write beautiful traditional poetry. Photo / Instagram, Arch Hades

A young divorcee who poured her heartbreak into poetry and shared it online has made a name for herself on Instagram - and landed a book deal in the process.

Arch Hades, 26, from London, discovered her passion for poetry when she turned to it for "solace" in lonely spells at her all-girls boarding school, but wrote merely as a hobby after school as she set about pursuing a career in politics, reports The Daily Mail.

"Hopeless romantic" Arch, who favours a traditional approach to verse over contemporary styles, like the 19th Century Russian poets whose work she most admires, said she draws inspiration from her emotions, and told FEMAIL she'd had her fair share of "heartbreaks, aches and pleasure".

She draws on it all - including five years with her ex-husband and a 'challenging' long-distance relationship after her divorce - for the poems she shares on Instagram, where it struck a chord with her growing fan base that now number in the tens of thousands.

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Arch, whose online popularity has led to her first published collection - High Tide: Poetry & Postcards - said she was encouraged by the reaction to the verses she shared, which was "overwhelmingly positive".

"I'm so glad people find my obscure sorrows and heartaches relatable and when they tell me it helps them feel less alone, it helps me feel less alone too," she said.

An extract from one of her poems entitled Grand Haven reads: "I'm losing sleep to hear you breathe; My desperate love keeps me awake; Adoring you with every heave; My aching heart no more can take."

Arch told FEMAIL it was feeling like the outcast during her days as a schoolgirl that saw her turn to literature.

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She said: "From the age of 11 I went to an all-girls boarding school until graduating at the age of 18. I didn't fit in as well as I'd hoped, so I found solace in books, in classical literature, especially poetry."

Speaking about her style of writing, she continued: "This is why I draw from more traditional poetry, that features tight rhyming and rhythm, in contrast to the majority of poets in my age range."

Describing the years that followed working in politics as eye-opening, Arch said: 'After graduating, I spent five years working in politics, which opened my eyes to the world and also the world of human nature.

"It was an immense learning curve and something that matured me considerably. But politics tends to polarise people.'"

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Speaking about the inspiration behind her material, Arch described the highs and lows of falling in love, having first been inspired by Russian poet and writer Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, who died in 1883.

"I remember the first book that set my soul on fire was Turgenev's masterpiece 'First Love'", she said, adding: "Reading the author's description of how the male protagonist falls in love for the first time, those emotions resonated with me so strongly, it was as if a hand reached out from the past and it has stayed with me ever since.

"Even though that book was published in 1860, the emotions written in it are so unsullied and so strong, it made me feel alive."

She continued: "I find my inspiration from my own emotions and have had my share of heartbreaks, aches and pleasure. I just want to find a way of expressing them with words.

"I will never run out of inspiration, not as long as I have emotions."

Giving an insight into her turbulent love life, she added: "I was with my ex-husband for five years.

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"Then after an unpleasant divorce I fell into quite a challenging long-distance relationship, which ended quite dramatically."

But reminding herself that "tough times don't last", she finally found her match, who she credits for her continued creativity.

"After spending some interesting times with an array of characters I found Xander, who is my muse, my inspiration, my spark, and I am grateful for his support," she said.

"I harbour no ill feelings towards anyone, regardless how things ended or why, I guess I'm just a hopeless romantic and I don't believe there's such a thing as wasted love."

And Arch says sharing her heartbreak with others has made her feel less alone, and she has been overwhelmed by the reaction to her poetry.

"Luckily, when I started sharing some extracts of my writing, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive and I'm so grateful for it," she said.

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Arch's new book, which retails at £5.99, was released on Amazon this summer and has already received five stars in the customer reviews section.

Part one of the book features poetry described as "sharing the bittersweet and often intense reality of complicated relationships that don't end in happily ever afters", while part two includes postcards that captures the Arch's travels.

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