I too was very sorry to hear Brian Patten had died (I was reminded of this in reading Mat Riches blog post in which he talks about having sent Patten some poems as a youngster and got a kind letter in reply – how lovely! Imagine writing letters. I did once get a kind reply to a fan letter I sent to Philip Schofield. But let’s not go into that!)

The Liverpool Poets loom large in my early days of reading poetry. I never saw Brian Patten read, but I did contact him a couple of years ago hoping he might agree to be interviewed for Planet Poetry, He replied that he wasn’t feeling up to it, but wouldn’t rule it out in the future. Sadly that future has now run out, and I feel the poorer for it.

One of my favourite poems in ‘New Volume’ was the last in the book, Patten’s ‘On Time For Once’, which I share with you here.