Tag: rory waterman

New book stuff, and other Spring shenanigans

Just back from a walk along the beach at Pevensey, part of the newly-established ‘England Coastal Path’. Sunny days at this time of year are so precious, aren’t they?

Now I’m about to get down to some work, mostly to do with the forthcoming book (ahem! did I mention that before?) which is now put to bed and being printed as I write. One of the last jobs was to decide on the cover image, which I’m very pleased with, and will talk about that in a future post. The Lewes launch is arranged – I’m sharing the gig with Peter Kenny who’ll be reading from his not-one-but-two pamphlets that came out in 2024. The original plan was to have the launch event on the official launch date, which is of course May 1st. But for various reasons it’s a week later. Close enough! Being a modest type (well, let’s just say I find it cringeworthy to do too much self-promo) I’ve engaged some help with promotion… more on that in a future post too, no doubt. Meanwhile I’ve made a Mayday Diaries landing page. And one of my wonderful blurbers, Rory Waterman, recently gave the book a glowing endorsement on Bluesky. Gulp!

Ok that’s enough gushing for now. Other poetry shenanigans of late: I really enjoyed the Eastbourne Poetry Cafe night last week when Mara Bergman was the featured poet. I really enjoyed her reading. Not only that but there were some good and varied open-micers too. I think EBC is attracting a more diverse audience these days, and well deserved.

Here’s Mara reading:

Mara Bergman reading

Next week I’m off to the National Poetry Competition awards night in London, which is always a happy occasion, and interesting to find out which poems have been judged the winners and hear then read.

Alongside poetry of course there’s music: concert with the East Sussex Community Choir singing Handel and Vivaldi this Saturday in Lewes Town Hall,  lots of forward planning for choral workshops in October and next Spring, for the Lewes Singers visit to Ely in the summer and even for Christmas concerts.

The other week I was fortunate to take part in a guided walk of Spitalfields, a historic quarter just East of the City of London, by the Gentle Author. I’ve been a reader of the GA’s blog for many years and it’s a fascinating trove of stories from this part of London -the places, the people, the history. Despite being well-known in the area, the Gentle Author is a very private person and never gives away their name. Which for some reason gives the blog (and the tours) a certain cachet. If you’re interested in London’s social history I highly recommend the tour. It ends with tea and cake in the drawing room of one of the historic Georgian houses on Fournier Street, home to many famous residents over the years including Gilbert & George. here’s the view from the window, onto Nicholas Hawksmoor’s iconic Christ Church:

Christ Church Spitalfields from the Gentle Author tour

And last but not least the garden. Various seedlings are on the go, and I can’t wait for the soil to warm up a bit and for all the Spring action to start. Hurrah!

seed trays

Two new poetry collections I’m enjoying

Look what arrived for me while I was away on a yoga-vegan-retreat in Spain (yup! That’s where I took this photo!) – Snow, the new pamphlet by Peter Kenny (poems) and Palo Almond (art) from Hedgehog Press. It’s a little A6-sized gem, with beautiful endpapers. Just four perfect little tankas accompanying Almond’s dreamy watercolours. Snow is number 6 in Hedgehog’s ‘Little Black Book’ series, and it’s official release date is 22nd May. Peter is of course my Planet Poetry podcast co-host so OK I’m a tad biased but hey, he’s not just a podcaster but a poet, whose work deserves to be more widely known.

Another new release is Rory Waterman’s fourth collection, Come Here to This Gate, published by Carcanet. So far I’ve read the first section, ‘All but forgotten’, a sequence which charts the poet’s relationship with his father in his last year of life. It’s left a big impression on me already, and there’s plenty more in the book to savour. Here’s a video of Rory talking about the collection.

I’ve been neck-deep recently in moving my various websites to a different hosting service, a process that is fraught with potential cock-ups. So if you spot anything weird about this site, or my email, or the sign up for my poetry magazines spreadsheet, please let me know. Speaking of which, I’m currently cooking up some extras to offer on my BuyMeACoffee page. More on that coming soon.

Now, why is so cold? Anyone know?