All Blogposts

  • Swindon Poetry Festival 2014

    Swindon Poetry Festival 2014

    Two days after Swindon Poetry Festival, I am still in a high and happy poetry place, and I risk losing my euphoria if I try to set down in words what it was about Swindon that I loved so much.  Luckily, there are already two brilliant posts for you to read, as Robert Peake and Read more

  • Next stop Swindon Poetry Festival

    Next stop Swindon Poetry Festival

    Just saying hello before I head off for four days at The Swindon Poetry Festival.  I feel like someone leaving home for university, except it’s a university of poetry.  Actually, knowing Hilda Sheehan who’s organised the festival, it will be more like a UNIVERSE of poetry in Swindon.  I can’t wait! I’m packing writing materials, Read more

  • In the wee small hours, someone’s working

    In January this year, I took a photo from my kitchen window every day and posted it on Instagram.  The photos I took at night, or very early in the morning,  before it turned light, are the most interesting I think. (The ones taken during the day mostly involve wheelie bins on our patio…).  In the photo below, Read more

  • Looking forward to Swindon Festival of Poetry

    Looking forward to Swindon Festival of Poetry

    Not long to go before I take up lodgings for FOUR DAYS in Swindon and immerse myself in the 2014 Swindon Festival of Poetry.  It feels like I’ve signed up for almost every event, there’s so much on offer, including readings from Don Share, Maurice Riordan, Kathryn Maris, Allison McVety, Robert Peake, Cliff Yates, Jackie Wills Read more

  • Lifesaving Poems Saved the Day

    Lifesaving Poems Saved the Day

    My month off seems like a far away country, yet it’s only been 12 days since I’ve been back at work.  Thank goodness my job involves reading poetry, and thank goodness for Anthony Wilson’s Lifesaving Poems series on his wonderful blog (soon to be made into a book by one of the UK’s leading poetry Read more

  • The enduring appeal of a fountain pen.

    The enduring appeal of a fountain pen.

    It used to be dark green but, sadly, the green eventually peeled away (actually, I peeled it away, in moments of absent-mindedness).  There have been times when I thought it missing forever, and I celebrated as heartily as the shepherd finding his lost sheep when it was found: in the dungeon that lies in the depths of our Read more