My book group friends aren’t really into poetry. At all. But someone suggested we read Matthew Hollis’s biography of the last years of Edward Thomas, ‘Now all roads lead to France.’ So I’ve brought the book on holiday with me to Wales and am engrossing myself in the detail of the life of a poetRead more ⟶
Writing again after a setback
A few weeks ago I was feeling a bit ‘stuck’ and decided to pay for another ‘Poetry Prescription’ from the Poetry Society. I got the feedback last week and it was less than motivating. Basically my work got sent to the same poet who looked at it last time (I did a ‘PP’ back inRead more ⟶
Ambit at the Betsey Trotwood
Took Lucy along to an Ambit poetry night yesterday at the Betsey Trotwood pub, a little island of old London tahn amidst the chaos and cacophony of Farringdon Road and on the edge of Clerkenwell Green. We weren’t prepared for the evening to start on time, but it did, so we missed a little ofRead more ⟶
Don Paterson interviewed by Maitreyabandhu
Don Paterson from Poetry East on Vimeo.
Poems from the Old Hill
Jeremy Page at the Frogmore Press is producing an anthology of work by poets who live in Lewes called ‘Poems from the Old Hill’ (althought rumour has it that at least one contributor will have moved out of Lewes by the time it’s published – yikes!) Very proud to say I have two poems inRead more ⟶
At the Plastic Bag Museum
these are the things that carried the stuff that people bought see those loops for hands – handles they’re called naturally they never carried boxes the corners would poke through split sides you can see why empties got crumpled thrust into drawers small thin ones used to pick up dogs’ turds the sturdier ones forRead more ⟶
Bumper latest news
Lots been happening lately. Firstly, my good friend and very talented poet Charlotte Gann was shortlisted for the Michael Marks pamphlet award. Although she was pipped at the post it was a wonderful to see her pamphlet The Long Woman make the shortlist for a big prize. Then, I had the chance to take partRead more ⟶
Hurrah! The Rialto takes another
So excited to have had a poem accepted for The Rialto. The first poem I had published was in this magazine (Rialto 70, Autumn 2010) and to say that I was ‘gobsmacked’ would be an understatement… only I’m not allowed to use that word in my husband’s presence as he believes it is an affront theRead more ⟶
Charleston Festival
It’s an annual ritual shared with an old schoolfriend. Charleston (Literary) Festival, at the end of May, takes place in the farmhouse once lived in by the ‘Bloomsberries’ – Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Lytton Strachey, John Maynard Keynes et al. Several hundred people are accommodated in a marquee in the garden, with between-sessions visits toRead more ⟶
Back
I haven’t posted here in a while, I actually took the blog ‘private’ for a few months, after a conversation with Catherine Smith about poets and blogging… she argued strongly for poets retaining a certain mystique and not baring their souls to all and sundry (or their weekly shop, or what they thought of theRead more ⟶