News and Events
Poetry Archive Now
The Poetry Archive has been posting poems on You Tube on the theme of this pandemic year and you can watch my reading there.
Presteigne Festival 26 August
The Presteigne Festival, digital this year, has a film of me reading my poetry and prose and is available until the end of the year: www.presteignefestival.com
The Tablet
My article on the writer James Hanley appeared in The Tablet on 8 August 2020
Times Literary Supplement
My “Freelance” column on the question of regional accents in the media appeared in the TLS on 19 June 2020
New Poems 2020
I have three new poems in the latest issue of Scintilla and two new in the recently published Journal of the Friends of the Dymock Poets (No 19, 2020) and two were published in recent issues of The Spectator (7 and 28 March)
Crossings
There is a link to the piece of music, “Tales of the Invisible" suggested by my book Crossings on the composer’s Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s website. This composition was premiered in the summer at the Presteigne Festival and was broadcast in March on Radio 3.
‘The Spoiled Priest'
My article on my father’s life as a seminarian in Rome in the 1930s based on his diaries was in the Christmas double issue of The Tablet magazine.
A New Poetry Collection
My new poetry collection, The Yellow Wheelbarrow, is now published by Melos Press.
It can be ordered directly post-free from the Melos site.
Highly Commended in Poetry London Clore Prize
My poem “Wodge” was one of two highly commended poems after the three winners in the 2019 Clore Prize
Talk at Presteigne Festival 23 August
I gave a talk at the Presteigne Festival on George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, looking at their relevance to the state of the world today.
TLS ‘Freelance’ article
My article on book collecting and the World’s Classics series appeared in the Times Literary Supplement of 26 April.
Spectator Poem
My poem “The Last Bus Home” was published in The Spectator 13 April 2019. It is a Liverpool poem placed in the 1970s when I was a student. Another poem, “Cooking in a Bedsitter”, was published in the same magazine on 18 May.
Aldous Huxley Talk
I gave a talk on 20 March at the Century Club on Aldous Huxley and Brave New World.
Poetry at the Music Room Bloomsbury
I read with A.C. Bevan and Cathy Galvin at The Music Room in Bloomsbury on 27th March to accompany the launch of Ian Harrow’s new Melos press poetry pamphlet, The Quiet Life.
Poems from the Welsh Borders
A new anthology of poems from the Welsh Borders is forthcoming from Seren Books and I am pleased to be one of many contributors.
Poetry Podcast
A podcast where I talk about Andrew Marvell and John Donne with Julia Copus has just been released on the Royal Literary Fund website.