How to enter a poetry competition

You go a talk by a Leading Poet. No one you know is there, but still you sit at the … More

Sailing through

Dear Anthony Two cycles down, just six more to go. You are not looking bad, considering. The belligerent doctor who … More

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

Readers of this blog will know I have been thinking a lot about stationery recently. (Actually, that is something of … More

My blog post yesterday about the stationery thing provoked more responses than I ever imagined it would. Among the … More

I was very saddened to learn recently of the death of Michael Baldwin, the novelist, poet, writing tutor and former … More

Dear Ant So you’ve had your first chemotherapy treatment. That first night, when you came home and carried the sick … More

Damp white imprints dog the feet; snowbound trolley, snowbound street. Her tip of glove to lip and cheek, “Goodbye.” Go. … More

My wife and I are at the airport of a European capital city. It’s late on a Friday evening, the … More

Dear Ant Isn’t it strange, how quickly you notice your passing from one world into the next? One minute … More

Gift A day so happy.Fog lifted early. I worked in the garden.Hummingbirds were stopping over the honeysuckle flowers.There was no … More

My memoir of cancer, Love for Now, has been reviewed by cancer patients, and former patients, under the aegis of Macmillan … More

I get to the reading on time. I find a place near the front, so I can get to the … More

I have been thinking a lot recently about the gap between what is expected of us and what we think … More

Just as I do not go around thinking about my cancer all the time, there are times when I feel … More

I have been thinking a lot recently about Tomas Tranströmer’s poem ‘Alone’. When I first read it I was taken … More

Dear Anthony (I will never get used to calling you Tony) Here are some words of advice from your nearing-fifty-year-old … More

An old friend of mine wrote to me the other day, out of the blue, to tell me about … More