Influences: my first reader

My first reader was a man called Fergus. A friend of a flatmate at university, I never got to … More

The most read Lifesaving Poems of 2014

Here are the most read Lifesaving Poems of 2014. For the first time I have been able to compare last … More

Thanks to the vision and generosity of Jean Sprackland, between 1999-2001 I had the privilege of working with the great … More

You think it will be about your childhood. It turns out to be about an onion. Or a night in … More

I have not read a book in six months -Raymond Carver, ‘Drinking While Driving’ I can still remember the shock … More

I listened to the most wonderful radio programme about failure the other day. It featured Anne Enright talking with clear-eyed … More

I began the year with two books which helped me slow down and breathe: Christian McEwen’s World Enough and Time and … More

Two readings stood out for me in 2013. The first was at an arts centre in the middle of nowhere … More

I’m grateful to you, you see. I wanted to tell you. –Raymond Carver (‘For Tess’) A kind, wise man once … More

It was the best of times. Jean Sprackland and I were tutoring the dream group at Totleigh Barton for a … More

It was the best of times. Jean Sprackland and I were tutoring a poetry course at Totleigh Barton, the Arvon … More

I wrote here recently about losing my ambition as a writer. In case readers are in any doubt, the stuff … More

Towards the end of my treatment for cancer in 2006 I had one of the most profound conversations of my … More

8.06 p.m. June 10th 1970poemTom Raworth (from Jumpstart, ed. Cliff Yates, Poetry Society, 1999) As I say in my previous blog post, … More

Saint Francis and the SowThe budstands for all things,even for those things that don’t flower,for everything flowers, from within, of … More

The Birkdale Nightingale(Bufo calamito – the Natterjack toad)On Spring nights you can hear themtwo miles away, calling their matesto the … More

I was struck by a remark of Seamus Heaney in an interview he gave some years ago now. He was … More