On not being grateful for cancer

An old friend of mine wrote to me the other day, out of the blue, to tell me about … More

Life Begins With Cancer

This is the recording of my reading ‘Life Begins With Cancer’, recorded at the Greenbelt Festival on Sunday 25th August, … More

I’m grateful to you, you see. I wanted to tell you. –Raymond Carver (‘For Tess’) A kind, wise man once … More

A year ago I published Riddance, a book of poems, with Worple Press. It concerns my diagnosis and experience of cancer … More

Today is the seventh anniversary of the day I was told I was officially in remission from cancer. The popular … More

Thank you to Julia McGuinness for posting this interview with me on her Creative Connections blog. In it I discuss … More

When I began to recover from my treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2006 this lovely article about Nick Drake’s Northern … More

Let Evening Come Let the light of late afternoon shine through chinks in the barn, moving up the bales as … More

I came across Hubert Moore’s fantastic book of poems The Hearing Room (Shoetstring, 2006) via my friend and neighbour Lawrence Sail. In … More

On headphones in the day case ward and in my kitchen late at night, Mogwai’s New Paths to the Helicon, … More

I wrote here recently about losing my ambition as a writer. In case readers are in any doubt, the stuff … More

This is Jörn Cann. He was my ward doctor at the haematology unit where I was treated for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma … More

Love for Now did not begin with an idea but an illness. As I have written elsewhere, there wasn’t a plan. I … More

Towards the end of my treatment for cancer in 2006 I had one of the most profound conversations of my … More

Tomorrow the Church Times publishes a combined review of my memoir of cancer Love for Now and Riddance, my … More

I wrote recently about poets who disappear from view, specifically Susannah Amoore, from Faber’s Poetry Introduction 6. My point is far … More

I wrote here a couple of days ago about my aversion to using war metaphor to describe cancer. Judging from … More

A friend of mine drew my attention via Twitter this week to an article detailing Robert Peston’s thoughts on his … More