How we spend our days, by Annie Dillard

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and … More

The Little Prince

‘I need to get away.’ ‘But there’s work to be done,’ says the book. ‘A holiday. That’s what I need.’ … More

The preciousness of things

‘Do you miss it?’ the book says. ‘Miss what?’ I say. ‘Having cancer,’ the book says. ‘Is this a joke?’ … More

A book into which everything can go, by Thomas Merton

It is necessary to write a book in which there will be a little less of the first person singular, … More

Running a bath

‘What are you doing?’ the book says. ‘What’s it look like?’ I say. ‘Running a bath,’ the book says. ‘Genius,’ … More

Guarding the threshold

‘What will you miss most?’ the book says. ‘About what?’ I say. ‘Me,’ says the book. ‘I didn’t know you … More

Some found poems

Recently I have featured prose writing by various writers, reshaping them in the form of found poems. Annie Dillard on … More

What it’s like to be human, by Mark Strand

  If every head of state and every government official spent an hour a day reading poetry we’d live in … More

Mark Strand on reading poetry -a found poem

Sometimes poems aren’t literal representations of anything. Sometimes a poem just exists as something else in the universe that you … More

What drives you?

‘What drives you?’ ‘I’ve only just woken up!’ I say to the book. ‘Don’t care. It’s morning. Work to be … More

Interview with the book

  ‘Aren’t you going get the phone?’ I say. ‘It won’t be for me.’ With a little groan the book … More

The book is fifty blog posts old

The adventures of the book have now clocked up fifty blog posts. Here is a list of all of them, … More

Addicted to the news

‘Listening to the cricket again?’ says the book. ‘I think I’ll join you.’ ‘What do you mean, ‘again’?’ I say. … More

Hugo Williams 

In the summer of 1986, when he was poetry editor of New Statesman and not long after Writing Home had … More

The next book

‘That thing you mentioned the other day,’ the book says. ‘Is it true?’ ‘What thing?’ I say. ‘About there being … More

Lifesaving Poems: Ted Kooser’s ‘A Rainy Morning’

A Rainy Morning   A young woman in a wheelchair, wearing a black nylon poncho spattered with rain, is pushing … More

Lifesaving Poems: Isaac Rosenberg’s ‘August 1914’

August 1914 What in our lives is burnt In the fire of this? The heart’s dear granary? The much we … More

Lifesaving Poems: Tania Hershman’s ‘By Any Other Name’

By Any Other Name First, he called her My Little Aubergine            as if she was … More