I haven’t kept up with the Sealey Challenge but it has prompted me to read more poems from my TO BE READ pile, including this one, ‘Late fig’ by Clare Best from her collection, Beyond the Gate (Worple Press, 2023). It’s a concrete poem but there’s no concrete here, it’s all fig, a mid-winter gift… Continue reading Three poems from books in my TBR pile
Tag: Currently reading
Proper Weeping
This week there has been a lot of weeping - proper weeping of the wet face, snotty-nose, aching chest variety. My daughter has moved out of our home and into a house share in South West London, not that far from where she was born, in fact, although she doesn't remember that, being not quite… Continue reading Proper Weeping
A very quiet start to the year
New Year was extremely quiet - very much like Christmas. I'm still recovering from (minor) knee surgery and 'cycling' on my static bike every most days. At the moment, I'm listening to The Leopard described on BBC iPlayer as "Giuseppe Di Lampedusa's gorgeous masterpiece of European political fiction, translated by Archibald Colquhoun, abridged by Sara… Continue reading A very quiet start to the year
Christmas Retreat
This Christmas has mostly been about recovering from minor arthroscopic surgery to correct a torn meniscus in my left knee. My stitches came out on 19 December and I had hoped to do a lot of writing because, coincidentally, my husband and two grown-up children have been visiting a close family friend in Australia for… Continue reading Christmas Retreat



