Yesterday I went to the Free Verse Poetry Book Fair and came home with: One free notebook - thank you, Poetry School! Two bookmarks Three business cards Three anthologies, including the free, chunky, Free Verse Poetry Book Fair anthology Four collections Nine free postcards Ten pamphlets, including the full set of four Telltale Press pamphlets …
Category: London
High-flying Hilda
Yesterday morning I joined a small crowd on Vardens Road, SW11, for the unveiling of a Battersea Society plaque honouring Hilda Hewlett. Hilda who? Only the first British woman to gain a pilot's licence, back in 1911, aged 47. And an extremely enterprising woman, who opened a flying school in Weybridge with her French business …
immigrant is not a dirty word
I am an immigrant. Have you heard of this campaign? Have you seen the posters? What an urgent and vital voice it seems at the moment. I am an immigrant too. I was born and grew up in Australia. I lived in Melbourne until my early twenties when I decided to move to London. My …
strong stuff
Clothes can change your state of mind. Imagine you live in late Victorian times. You are in a state of extreme mental distress, and have been admitted to Bethlem Hospital. Perhaps you believe your soul has been lost, or all your organs have been removed, or some great harm is imminent. Early in your stay, …
In print again, reading again!
If you're in or near London, it would be great to see you at the South Bank Poetry issue 21 launch this Friday. The editors promise a bit of a 'coming of age' party!
Fourth of July vigil for Shaker Aamer
Yesterday, it was hot and sunny in London. Yesterday, millions of US citizens celebrated Independence Day. Yesterday, Shaker Aamer endured another day held without charge in Guantanamo Bay, denied his most basic human rights, shackled, force-fed, kept in solitary confinement; trapped in a grim Kafkaesque legal no-man's-land where he has been cleared for release for …
poets, gardens, roofs
In late April, I attended a one day workshop at the Poetry School, which offered the opportunity to be a poet-in-residence in a London park or garden as part of the Open Garden Squares Weekend. In the morning, we were bombarded with information and ideas about how to run a residency, and in the afternoon …
helping out on the roof
I'd normally run a mile from a 'family fun day', but last Saturday I set aside my prejudices and lent a hand at my community roof garden for their annual Chelsea Fringe event. I'm actually a keyholder for the garden now, and on the friendly-and-informal committee, but my gardening still hasn't progressed much beyond appreciating …
devouring Barracuda
The book: Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas Start time: Thursday 14th May approximately 11 p.m. Finish time: Sunday 24th May approximately 8:45 a.m. Number of pages: 513 This is fast for me. I'd wanted to read this for a while but it looked like a chunky novel and not one I could easily carry around with …
Notes on the Poetry of B.S. Johnson
On Wednesday evening we attended a free event at the Poetry Library discussing and celebrating the poetry of B.S. Johnson, who is better known for his experimental novels such as The Unfortunates. I'd prepared for the event by reading the selection of Johnson's poetry published in Penguin Modern Poets 25 (1975) - an old secondhand …
Hilaire 