Nicholas Royle wrote some lovely words about my writing in Time Out back in 1996, as part of a feature profiling four up-and-coming London writers. I'm still not there yet (wherever 'there' may be) but the support of people like Nicholas Royle is what keeps most writers (wherever they are) plugging away. My novel The …
Category: writing
Twenty-four hours in Ledbury
I overcame my PoFestPhobia and travelled up to Ledbury on Saturday for a brief taste of the largest poetry festival in the UK in this, its 20th year. And I have to report, it was a rather joyful experience! First stop after we arrived late morning: the Walled Garden, where we caught the tail end …
busy in a good way
There's not been much let up since my Thrive residency came to an end. On Sunday 26th June I travelled far north (for a south London gal) to perform at Finchley Literary Festival's closing event, the Poetry and Music Palooza hosted by Anna Meryt. The locals were friendly and it was a fun and uplifting evening, …
sharing poems in the park
So, I've done it. I can update my writing CV to say I was Poet in Residence at Thrive Battersea for the Open Garden Squares Weekend 2016. It's been a thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding experience — both the run up to the weekend, spending time in the Herb Garden and the Old English Garden, sitting, …
poetry in the Old English Garden
It's hard to imagine a more picturesque setting for a poetry reading than the Old English Garden in Battersea Park. Here, on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, I read some of my garden themed poems as part of Thrive's Chelsea Fringe Festival week of events. The weather was kind to me, with warm sunshine breaking through …
thrilled to be Thriving
For the second year in a row, the Poetry School has teamed up with Open Garden Squares Weekend to offer mini residencies in London parks and gardens to emerging poets. Last year, my residency never quite got off the ground, so I'm delighted that this year I've been matched up with Thrive in Battersea Park. …
baths, bananas, bluebells
If you ever doubted the variety of erotic expression, take a peek inside The Emma Press's Mildly Erotic Verse anthology. The expanded second edition was launched on Wednesday night upstairs at the Betsey Trotwood. Outside, it was pretty nippy. Inside, the gaggle of poets and poetry lovers was soon casting aside coats and basking in …
rhythm and balance
or balance and rhythm. Two key elements in any good piece of writing. And thinking about time, how I use it, how to structure it, I realise this is what I'm aiming for: rhythm and balance. I'm resistant to timetables. The word 'routine' gives me the horrors. But balance and rhythm — yes, these feel …
January poetry jamboree
Poets, it seems, don't hibernate. The first couple of weeks of 2016 have been jam-packed with poetry events and I've managed to squeeze in a few, despite a visit from the sinusitis fairy. My personal poetry fest kicked off before the new year, with two poems published in Ol' Chanty online. The issue also includes …
not getting any younger
It's a cliché and it's true - none of us are getting any younger. But facing up to the reality of ageing, in a society that prizes youthfulness and demeans or ignores old age, is not easy. So The Emma Press's new Anthology of Age feels like a small but much needed poetic intervention, a …
Hilaire 