Daffodils are already opening in the community roof garden where I volunteer. Those yellow trumpets certainly lift the spirits, heralding the promise of spring just around the corner. I've had a quietish start to the year and have used this to reflect and think about how I can build on the workshops and walks I …
Tag: Loose Muse
Three readings, a workshop, a virus and a Fun Day
That was my May, and I'm still recovering. I eased into the month with a double reading at Loose Muse on 8th May. In the first half, Joolz Sparkes and I read from our joint collection London Undercurrents, recently published by Holland Park Press. Over the five or so years that we've been working on …
Continue reading Three readings, a workshop, a virus and a Fun Day
crazy May
My month ahead, I mean, not the Prime Minister. No, no, no. May is looking a bit crazy for me, but I'll get through it. Scratch that. I'll ENJOY it! (Thanks, Joolz, for the 'be more dog' tip!) First up, on Wednesday 8th May, Joolz Sparkes and I are featured readers at Loose Muse, London’s …
overdue debut
Last Saturday I braved the downpour and headed up to Kings Cross for a special evening at SLAM - the launch of four Green Bottle Press pamphlets. I'll declare my bias at the outset.* I was there for one poet - Claire Booker - and this post is mostly about her pamphlet Later there will be …
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 …
talent times two
Another excellent and uplifting Loose Muse last Wednesday evening at the Poetry Café. The featured writer in the first half was Patricia Foster. A poet and educator, Patricia performed her poems with great charm and presence. Many of her poems draw on her Jamaican heritage and celebrate her close bond with her family. The Broomstick relates …
Loose Muse feature
Wednesday night was blowing a gale in London, but the threatened tube strike had been suspended, and the day's lashing rain finally dried up. So, given the circumstances, there was a good turn out for Loose Muse at the Poetry Café, where I was billed as one of the two featured writers. Unfortunately, Sally Spedding, …
first Tuesday, second Wednesday
So my new year's not-quite-resolution to do less, to go out less, got off to a flying start this week when I went to two poetry events on successive nights. It was my second visit to Beyond Words in Gipsy Hill, which takes place on the first Tuesday of every month. January's star attraction was …
wine, women, words
That's a recipe for a convivial and enriching evening, and that's exactly what we got last Thursday at the launch of the fourth Loose Muse anthology, downstairs at Cottons on Exmouth Market. Once again, Agnes Meadows and her co-editors have put together a varied and top-class collection of writing by women who have attended one …
muses aplenty
Thursday 4th April. Outside, the bitter easterly wind continued to savage awnings, umbrellas and most people's spirits. We'd had snow flurries and sleet all day, and London's pavements spattered a thin muddy muck on everyone's boots. In the downstairs bar of Cotton's Caribbean Restaurant in Exmouth Market, nearly 30 women writers, plus friends and supporters, …
Hilaire 