The Year of Living Deeply 14: Which artists do you admire most?

I have been reading Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It For Life recently. In it she asks … More

The Year of Living Deeply 16: I have carried it with me each day

I have carried it with me each day, that sense of shame about the fact that I write, that it … More

About a month before my friend Pammy died, she said something that may have permanently changed me. We had … More

A few words about the piece below. I wrote the first draft of it in 1989, a year after the … More

I have been thinking a lot about habits recently. The unconscious, unthinking ones which, as Sylvia Plath said about words, … More

I wrote the poem below in the summer of 2015. David Cameron had won a slim majority in the … More

Dear Alicia I can’t believe it is three years since I got to hang out with you at Totleigh … More

after Shawna Lemay Write a poem about the rain. Or the wind. Write about what you learned at university. … More

Anne Lamott suggests an index card, and I have used these, but they suggest something pre-planned, organised. The envelope, especially … More

It isn’t often that you read something that you know as soon as you read it has the capacity to … More

Having left FB a week or two ago and quickly decided before I could persuade myself to do otherwise to … More

I always think of myself as working at a rock face. Ninety days out of ninety five, it’s just a … More

After Charles Wright Strives for perfection-Thursday Is begun day after votings Old envelope from the hospital) Will … More

I am not sure how this is going to turn out. It was something somebody said in response to my … More

‘What’s up?’ says the book. ‘It’s nothing. Really. I’m fine,’ I say. ‘For a person with their head in their … More

I was in a waiting room, having cycled, a bit out of breath, a book on my knee, trying to … More

(After Andy Brown) Because my children are briefly sleeping under the same roof Becuase Col and Lucy and M and … More

‘Good Christmas?’ I say. ’Fairytale,’ the book says. ‘Grimm.’ ’Are you here all week?’ ’Unlike some of us.’ ’It was … More