Richard Scott – That Broke into Shining Crystals
Sometimes books rewire the brain. Even as you read, you know already that, by the time you’re done, you’ll be …
Category Archives: Faber and Faber
In Bloom – Bernard O’Donoghue’s The Anchorage
Reading Bernard O’Donoghue’s Farmers Cross in 2012, it was the poem ‘Vocation’ that caught my eye. The speaker considers a …
A Fragile Thing – Camille Ralphs’ After You Were, I Am
After a chance remark about George Herbert, the librarian pulled a small volume from the shelf: leatherbound and plain, scruffy …
The 2016 T.S. Eliot Prize
For various reasons, 2016 was not much of a year for reading, or reviewing poetry. So, the experience of reviewing …
Sean O’Brien’s The Beautiful Librarians & Don Paterson’s 40 Sonnets
A couple more of my reviews of T.S. Eliot prize shortlisted collections have been posted on the Poetry Book Society’s …
Bullet in the Head – Frederick Seidel’s Nice Weather
Last summer was filled with the poetry of Terrance Hayes and notably with his Friday: Poem. Like the outrageous conceits of Donne’s …
The child is grown, the dream is gone – Hugo Williams’ West End Final
Twice a day, I studied the cigarette stubber riveted to the melamine back of the bus seat. Ash threw the …
Take up your cross and follow me – Andrew Motion’s The Customs House
If you’re ever on the A34 near Basingstoke, then consider stopping at Burghclere. The main road is unchanged since painted …
Ecce Homo – Julia Copus’ The World’s Two Smallest Humans
Buy The World’s Two Smallest Humans from Faber When I saw Mark Wallinger’s Ecce Homo (1999) dwarfed by Trafalgar Square’s scale and chutzpah, …
Braiding a windowpane – Don Paterson’s Rain
Buy Rain from Faber and Faber A friend of mine who was born and bred in Reading, a place whose …
Poor Rude Lines 