A packed week, which started, startlingly and hilariously, with James Naughtie's now infamous slip-up just before 8 o'clock on Monday morning. Then the gratifying announcement that Susan Philipsz had won the Turner Prize (see my post about her installation Surround Me). Also tickled to hear about the campaign Cage Against the Machine, which aims to …
Diaghilev at the V & A
On Friday afternoon, we ventured out to see the exhibition Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballet Russes at the Victoria and Albert museum. This proved to be a thoroughly absorbing exhibition, bringing together so many different elements - theatre, music, art, choreography, strong and creative personalties - in the same way that Diaghilev …
Triptych Poets – Melbourne launch
Thursday 11th November saw the Melbourne launch of Triptych Poets: Issue One, hosted by my fellow Triptych poet Ray Liversidge at Collected Works bookshop. Unfortunately I couldn't quite stretch to a flying visit back home, but some of my family were able to attend. Ray read my poem The Lemon Tree, the Hills Hoist and …
surround me
What better way to spend a crisply cold Sunday afternoon than tracking down ethereal sound installations in obscure alleys and corners of the City of London? These temporarily deserted streets are the site for Surround Me - A Song Cycle for the City of London by Susan Philipsz. We start in Change Alley, where three …
time to write
Tomorrow, officially, is the first day of my six month sabbatical from paid employment. My plan, simply, is to write. To see what I can achieve (unfortunate, work-tainted word) with a period of uninterrupted time. Uninterrupted, except for interruptions I choose, from hourly mugs of coffee, to gazing out the window at the comings and …
The Unfortunates
A few (random, appropriately) thoughts on Radio 3's dramatisation of B.S. Johnson's The Unfortunates, broadcast last night: his searing honesty that wonderful mix of humour and pathos the vividly evoked detail of place and time (the sixties, a Midlands town, British Rail trains, a walk on the Downs...) the relishing of food, of language held …
Triptych Poets – London launch
After much angsting (what should I wear? will anyone come along? will I sell any books?), the London launch of Triptych Poets turned out to be a very enjoyable event. In a dimly-lit below-stairs bar, round the corner from the Friday night madness of Leicester Square, a good group of friends and acquaintances gathered to …
happy national poetry day
On the radio this morning I hear a setting of a Robert Burns poem, My heart's in the Highlands, by Arvo Pärt, for counter-tenor and organ. An unexpected combination - Pärt and Burns - the ascetic Estonian composer and the libertine Scottish bard. But it works. A charming and wistful song, a perfect piece for …
about reading about writing
Working my way through the latest issue of the London Review of Books (I must finish it before the next fortnightly issue arrives, otherwise low-level panic sets in), which is chock full of far too stimulating reviews and articles. When will I find the time to read an actual book? This issue (cover date 23 …
lushness, sublimity and more
Summer is coming to an end. So are the Proms. Last night, we sat high up in the circle at the Royal Albert Hall to watch and listen to the Berliner Philharmoniker perform some sublime music. First up, Wagner's Prelude to Act 1 of Parsifal - love those lush strings. Then, the extraordinary soaring, immensely …
Hilaire 