Lifesaving Lines: What the Living Do, by Marie Howe

Two great lines for the price of one (it is Christmas, after all) this week, from Marie Howe’s extraordinary poem … More

Summer reading

To continue this season of not, where I have been reposting old blog posts and links to some others, I … More

There were just a few of us in the room, gathered round a table. I had been invited to speak. … More

I had bumped into a friend at the cash machine. We greeted each other, as we always do, with a … More

Dear Cancer It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Fifteen years, to be precise. To the day. Amazing to realise it … More

Before I start, I want to say that this is not about stats. This is not about stats. What this … More

Dear Arthur Frank I’m writing to say thank you for your extraordinary book At the Will of the Body. It is … More

Phil has been round. I know this because we came home the other night to find a pack of Toffee … More

Some of you will have seen this blog post before. It is a taster of some of the contents … More

Dear James (may I call you James?) Though it’s been a while (at least ten years, maybe more) it feels as … More

This being a Saturday in Lent, I am reposting a favourite blog post from my archives. See you after the … More

I am really bad at doing one thing. If I am chopping an onion, I am listening to the radio. … More

I am delighted to be publishing Deck Shoes, a book of enthusiasms, influences and memoir, with Impress Books, next year. … More

Next year is going to be a big year for me. I am going to have two new books out … More

Reading Frank O’Hara in the Hospital 1 The IV drips its slow news. So long, lean and turbulent morning! … More

There were just a few of us in the room, gathered round a table. I had been invited to … More

Dear Friends Here are the blog posts which you read most often in 2017, according to my WordPress stats: … More

A Tuesday, appropriately. (Tuesday being the day I was formally diagnosed.) Poetic, it strikes me now. But at the time, … More