A Call Out for Foyle Young Poets

Calling all Winning & Highly Commended Foyle Young Poets 2012 – 2019 If you are a young writer who … More

Goodbye to being a poet

For reasons I cannot go into here, I am finishing 2019 in a tired frame of mind. (I am not … More

Greenbelt Festival, Friday 23rd August Outside, it is a very warm 28º. Inside our tented venue the canvass and stage … More

‘Hello,’ says the book. ‘I’ve missed you.’ ‘I’ve missed you, too,’ I say. I look at the book for a … More

Thank you to the heroic bloggers and poets Josephine Corcoran and Robin Houghton for their recentish posts about their desks. … More

Shute Festival, 13 September, St Michael’s Church The audience in pews. September sunlight and warmth still in the air, light … More

Settee in Autumn The leaves change colour and fallon the russet settee. Sticky buds are stuckdown the back of the … More

I nearly went back on Twitter the other day. Not once, but several times. One of my very lovely relatives … More

Paul Brookes at Wombwell Rainbow has posted an interview with me about my reading and writing life, my influences … More

Bike You, who have borne three sonsof mine, still bear my weightroutinely, transporting me. An odd pair: your classic … More

I am love with making notes. I makes notes in the morning, at bedtime, in the private places, in meetings, … More

Though I know him, his name escapes me. He is really a friend of a friend of a friend, the … More

In 2014 I was invited by the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival to be their guest blogger. I have added the blog … More

I love this time of year. The city still seems to belong to itself. Mornings are still mornings, not a … More

I write a lot of things down. In part this is because I no longer remember anything. If I do … More

I love this time of year. There is a wonderful Anne Lamott line somewhere about the welcome of the cooler … More

A little taster for you. This is an essay from my forthcoming book Deck Shoes. – I was having … More

– –for Peter and Amanda Carpenter Yesterday a miraculous thing happened. I took delivery of a box containing copies … More