To my fearless guest bloggers

One of the great joys of writing this blog in the last year has been to invite some of my … More

Guest blog post: Travelling without a visa, by Finuala Dowling

Travelling without a visa   It seems to me that all writing comes from a place of resistance inside – … More

Finding Sharon Olds’s The Matter of This World

The Collection The Matter of This World: New and Selected Poems (Slow Dancer, 1987)   I found The Matter of … More

Poetry highlights of 2014

  I have so much to be grateful for in 2014. The year began in one of my temporary fits … More

Why we need Aldeburgh

Dan O’Brien began by saying he wasn’t really a poet, but a ‘moonlighting playwright’. Selima Hill took out her glasses, … More

Mostly all the time nearly everything

Everyone who enters the stage begins by saying thank you * That silence * Mostly nearly all the time * … More

Poetry and disobedience

Early on Saturday morning of the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival (Tom Pickard threatened not to get up in time) Robert Seatter … More

The soldier, the cauliflower, the walking, the monkey and the man’s bottom

Sitting over toast and marmalade with Peter Sansom yesterday morning he said to me: ‘I don’t bother with novels any … More

Coming home to Aldeburgh

  A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. Robert Frost … More