Hanging out the washing

‘What are you doing?’ ‘What’s it look like?’ I say. ‘Hanging out the washing,’ the book says. ‘That’s right. I’m … More

A sense of wonder, by Arthur Frank

The only real difference between people is not health or illness but the way each holds onto a sense of … More

‘Do you miss it?’ the book says. ‘Miss what?’ I say. ‘Having cancer,’ the book says. ‘Is this a joke?’ … More

‘What are you doing?’ the book says. ‘What’s it look like?’ I say. ‘Running a bath,’ the book says. ‘Genius,’ … More

‘What will you miss most?’ the book says. ‘About what?’ I say. ‘Me,’ says the book. ‘I didn’t know you … More

In the last year, another government initiative has created a compulsory part of the curriculum: learning poetry by heart … More

If every head of state and every government official spent an hour a day reading poetry we’d live in … More

Sometimes poems aren’t literal representations of anything. Sometimes a poem just exists as something else in the universe that you … More

The book is in its gardening clothes. ‘I’m going out,’ it says. ‘You’ve let the lawn go again.’ ‘You can’t … More

‘Listening to the cricket again?’ says the book. ‘I think I’ll join you.’ ‘What do you mean, ‘again’?’ I say. … More

In the summer of 1986, when he was poetry editor of New Statesman and not long after Writing Home had … More

A Rainy Morning A young woman in a wheelchair, wearing a black nylon poncho spattered with rain, is pushing … More

August 1914 What in our lives is burnt In the fire of this? The heart’s dear granary? The much we … More

Jack Palance: Do you know what the secret of life is? Billy Crystal: No, what? Jack Palance: This [he … More

By Any Other Name First, he called her My Little Aubergine as if she was … More

You say “drone” and I think of bagpipes refrigerators aeroplanes I think of bees a male bee in a colony … More

Advertisement (after Tim Dooley) State-approved cookery books in every emporium of food. Information concerning lipids in dayglow font between … More

I think I am probably in love with silence, that other world. And that I write, in some way, to … More