On Brian Sewell, Chatwin and Sebald
Rotherham library has again come up trumps: in the last week I’ve read the two-volume autobiography, Outsider, published by Quartet Books in 2011 and 2012, of Brian Sewell. If he’s remembered now, it’s...
View ArticleOn Berlin
The 2024 Euros Final in the Olympiastadion in Berlin tomorrow reminds me that when I spent the summer of 1987 in West Berlin with my university friend Caroline and her sister Sharon, one day we...
View ArticleOn Philip Rush’s ‘Shacklegate’
A characteristically astute review by Helena (Nell) Nelson in The Friday Poem the other week alerted me to the fact that Philip Rush had a collection of his distinctive poems (and photos), entitled...
View ArticlePresence
After an absence of five years, I’ve rejoined the Presence team, but under tragic circumstances: to fill the gap created by the very sad passing of Chris Boultwood, who, as well as being a fine haiku...
View ArticleOn Edward Burra again
I’ve written about Edward Burra before, here, and my admiration for him, his art and his life are undiminished. A couple of weeks ago I visited Playden, a mile north of Rye, East Sussex, where Burra...
View ArticleOn Ian Parks’s poetry of music
For the month from late July until late August, the poet Paul Brookes has been / will be publishing, at his Substack journal The Starbeck Orion, daily contributions to a festschrift for Ian Parks, to...
View ArticlePoem in the Morning Star
On Monday of this week, I wrote a poem which was published online yesterday, here, and which is in today’s print copy of the Morning Star. For the best eyewitness reporting of what happened at Manvers...
View ArticlePoem in The North #70 –‘Invigilator Slater’
I’m delighted to be in another issue, of The North, for my money Britain’s best poetry journal. My poem is below. The issue also contains poems by Ian McMillan, Pascale Petit, Kathy Pimlott, Ruth...
View ArticleJuly–August reading
Thanks mainly to Rotherham Library’s engagingly eccentric stock, I’ve got through a real miscellany of books in the last two months. I’ll begin with fiction. I admired Patrick McGuinness’s excellent...
View ArticleThe Understory Conversation
As well as her own poetry, I’ve long admired Charlotte Gann’s dialogues with creative artists, poets especially, so it’s a real honour for me to talk with Charlotte about a poem of mine, and its...
View ArticlePoem in London Grip –‘Picasso in England’
My thanks to editor Michael Bartholomew-Biggs for publishing a poem of mine, in good company, in the autumn issue of London Grip, here.
View ArticleFeatured poet in The Fig Tree #4
I’m delighted and honoured to be the featured poet in the new issue of The Fig Tree, here. I am grateful to its editor and fine poet and reviewer, Tim Fellows. Although it’s based in Derbyshire and has...
View ArticlePoem at Black Nore Review –‘Reversing the Charges’
Getting poems published surely is like waiting for buses. With my thanks to editor Ben Banyard, I’m delighted to be back on the Black Nore Review site today, here.
View ArticleVacancy for General Editor of Presence haiku journal
As mentioned in the editorial of issue #79, Ian Storr will be standing down as General Editor of Presence after #81, to be published in March 2025. A new editor (or joint editors) will therefore need...
View ArticlePoem in The Honest Ulsterman – ‘The Walrus Club’
Having recently taken up swimming again for the first time in years, I’m delighted to have a poem about that pastime (and other stuff) in the latest issue of The Honest Ulsterman, here. I’m grateful to...
View ArticleSeptember reading
Another miscellany, which is how I like it. I tried my best to get to grips with Kay Ryan’s Odd Blocks – Selected and New Poems (Carcanet, 2011), and liked her quirky, playful poetry to start with; but...
View Article‘Writing through place’ podcast
I’ve been listening to a National Centre for Writing podcast on ‘Writing through place’, a conversation between two fantastic poets, Rebecca Goss and Heidi Williamson. It’s available here and is really...
View ArticleReview of Sarah Wimbush’s STRIKE
With thanks, as ever, to Hilary Menos and Andy Brodie of The Friday Poem, my review of Sarah Wimbush’s excellent STRIKE, which was nominated for the Forward Best Collection Prize, is here.
View ArticleOctober reading
I read Kathleen Jamie’s first two collections of nature and travel essays – Findings (2005) and Sightlines (2012) – when they appeared and loved them both. But they weren’t so much nature or travel...
View ArticleOn Geraldine Clarkson’s Medlars
It’s been a while since I read Chris Edgoose’s admirable and enticing review for The Friday Poem, here, of Geraldine Clarkson’s second full collection, Medlars, available to buy from its publisher...
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