All Blogposts

  • Poems-on-a-Beermat Competition

    Poems-on-a-Beermat Competition

    BOA Arts Festival Poetry Competition 2014 v3 Entries are invited for an Open Poetry Competition on the theme of Light – closing date July 30th 2014. There will be a prize of £200 for the best poem submitted, with discretionary second and third place awards of £50 and £25 if the quality of entries merits Read more

  • Curl up with a poetry reading series

    Curl up with a poetry reading series

    Just a reminder that Robert Peake’s Transatlantic Poetry Reading Series is still going strong with Gerry Cambridge and David Mason reading live on air this Sunday, April 27th (8pm BST / 3pm EDT / 12pm PDT) and Agi Mishol and Marie Howe reading on Sunday, 4th May. Today, where I live in West Wiltshire, it’s Read more

  • Neither a lark nor an owl

    Neither a lark nor an owl

    Today’s Daily Prompt from WordPress, Because the Night – Are you a night owl or are you the early bird? – and being on holiday over Easter – has made me realise that I’m most productive as a writer, and most cheerful as a human being, when I’m a slave to no routine or alarm Read more

  • How I met my husband

    How I met my husband

    Getting to know people through their writing. I met my husband, Andrew Horsfall, in September 1993 while we were students at West Sussex Institute of Higher Education (now University of Chichester) and we lived on campus at Bishop Otter College, Chichester, in a small 1930s block of student accommodation called New Hall (now, I believe, Read more

  • I’m on Instagram

    I’m on Instagram

    If I’m not here, I might be on Instagram. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been trying to post once a week in 2014 and usually on a Sunday.  However, the school Easter holidays and a flying visit to Paris with my family meant that I missed last Sunday and my schedule is now of order.  Read more

  • Taking teenagers to poetry readings

    Taking teenagers to poetry readings

    I don’t know if it will make them loathe or love poetry more than the next person but my teenage children sometimes come with me to poetry readings. It helps if the venue is as comfortable, relaxed and welcoming as The Boston Tea Party on Park Street in Bristol where I went with my 13 Read more