The new edition of Magma, edited by Benedict Newbery and Pauline Sewards, is dedicated to ‘work’, a subject close to my heart. It’s always puzzled me why there appears to be…
… Fourth Impression (1965) with a foreword by Leonard Woolf. Hogarth Press! Original dust jacket bearing Vanessa Bell’s design! I found it at Much Ado Books in Alfriston, well worth…
Ilya Kaminsky’s Deaf Republic came through the post from the Poetry Book Society, swathed in accolades. Looking at the title my first thought was of Raymond Antrobus’s The Perseverance, also…
It seems as if class and regional differences are very much to the fore at the moment. No surprise there I suppose, nor the increased discussion of accent as a…
Alongside making updates to the look and feel of this site (and general online spring cleaning) I’ve been enjoying some stimulating reading lately. The January edition of Poetry has yielded…
One of the first books I bought and consumed (once I started thinking it possible I could write the odd semi-decent poem) was Mary Oliver’s A Poetry Handbook, along with…
Something different. I answered the Poetry Society’s call for audience members at a recording of BBC Radio 4’s ‘Book Club’. The guest poet being interviewed by James Naughtie was…
A couple of brief reviews of collections I’ve been reading: Inland – Kay Syrad (Cinnamon, 2018) (£8.99) There’s nothing predictable or familiar in this collection. Just when you feel you’re…
Things have been a bit quiet on this blog for the last month, mainly because I’ve been full-on with the new booklet which arrived from the printers today – hurrah!…