To safe and almost universal silence I published How Far From Here is Home? (Stride) a few days before Christmas in … More
Tag: Arvon Foundation
Open letter to Alicia Stubbersfield (LentBlog31)
Dear Alicia I can’t believe it is three years since I got to hang out with you at Totleigh … More
Losing My Ambition
Towards the end of my treatment for cancer in 2006 I had one of the most profound conversations of … More
What really matters?
I was on the phone to a writer friend the other week. In itself this is a rare occurrence: normally … More
On giving feedback
I found myself in the position of giving feedback to some writers recently. The writers were teachers who had signed … More
Writing in the cracks
I was having a coffee with a new writer friend the other day. Not having known each other for very … More
#NaBloPoMo 12 – The Alan Booth method
I have been thinking a lot recently about Alan Booth, my English teacher from the ages of 11 to 13. … More
Life beyond the door
Last week saw an important milestone for Teachers as Writers. The CPD/feedback day gave everyone involved in the project – … More
Open letter: in memory of Janet Fisher
And though I only met you once, your influence on me is massive, or should that be was I don’t … More
What we talk about when we talk about writing
The more I talk about writing with students, teachers, colleagues and other writers, the less I am sure that we … More
Stealing
One of the joys of working on the Teachers as Writers project is that I get to steal. As … More
The Arvon effect
When the Arvon student is put in posession of that creative self, which was hitherto inaccessible, two things, in particular, … More
Living and breathing Arvon
‘I’ve been at the field.’ This, spoken by one of the teachers on last week’s writing residential at Totleigh … More
Researching writers’ engagement with teachers: the Teachers as Writers research project
Along with colleagues from the Arvon Foundation, The Open University and University of Exeter I have just begun … More
How to be a writing tutor
Thanks to the vision and generosity of Jean Sprackland, between 1999-2001 I had the privilege of working with the great … More
The real test of a poem
I was very saddened to learn recently of the death of Michael Baldwin, the novelist, poet, writing tutor and former … More
Lifesaving Poems: Dave Smith’s ‘Reading the Books Our Children Have Written’
I once heard Stephen Knight say ‘If I am reading well then I am writing well.’ It was a Q … More
Lifesaving Poems: Ted Hughes’s ‘Wind’
Wind This house has been far out at sea all night,The woods crashing through darkness, the booming hills,Winds stampeding the … More