Poetry Month- Derek Walcott’s White Egrets

Up to now, I’ve only browsed Walcott’s poems, so for the start of National Poetry month I decided I should read one of this collections properly. I settled on White Egrets published in 2010. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1992 and taught one of my tutors on the Poetry School MA.…

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Poets let loose in the Natural History Museum

Thanks to the Poetry School and John McCullough I spent a Saturday at the end of May ransacking the Natural History Museum for poems. My day began early and I was even offered Prosecco on the train into London after I’d unwittingly joined a hen party as they had a spare seat in their midst. They…

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Out and About and Weekend Reading

This blog post was going to begin with welcoming the warmer more summery weather and the chance to get out and about but we’ve had heavy rain for the last couple of days and the temperature has dropped. Nonetheless I have been on various writing and poetry excursions recently with more planned for June and…

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Hedgerow Apple Trees of Wing in Buckinghamshire

One of the benefits of having a dog is that you get to go on regular walks and so over the past year I’ve got to know the footpaths around the village very well. What I have noticed this autumn is the abundance of crab apple trees in the hedgerows. Almost every field seems to…

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A day of reading –reading does make you happier

When was the last time you spent all of most of your day immersed in a book? Last week, last month or back when you were a teenager? I expect that for many of us (apart from critics and perhaps book bloggers) reading is something to be fitted in around the other things which make…

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Three most popular posts

Now that I am writing blog posts more regularly I have been taking an interest in the statistics for the blog. I’ve been pleased to discover that the most popular posts have focussed on the work of two poets; The first is John Pudney whose work I was reading back in 2012.   The second…

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20 Poets for you to read to celebrate National Poetry Month

Inspired by Bethany Price’s article on Chicago Now I thought I’d join the party by suggesting 20 UK (or UK based) poets  for you to read during April to celebrate National Poetry Month being 20 years old this year. The list below is based on my personal favourites rather than being comprehensive listing of the…

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An artist date

I’d decided I wasn’t going to try to emulate Sarah Salway who will be doing weekly artist’s dates during 2016 but her most recent blog post had planted a seed in my subconscious about having more fun in 2016. During January the irrepressible Amy Souza has organised another art/poetry postcard exchange as happened last January…

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Ready for the T.S Eliot Prize

The first of the year’s poetry higlights is fast approaching with the T.S.Eliot Prize Reading on Sunday at the Royal Festival hall. There are, as always, ten books on the shortlist and I’m more agog than usual about this year’s choices. So much so that I’ve managed to read three of them. The weekend will begin…

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