I’m writing this with the remnants of a slight hangover – this is left over from Friday night – nowadays I don’t seem to be able to drink very much without feeling ill and it takes me longer to recover. On…
Remembrance Sunday and Barrow Brass Band talk…
Sometimes it might seem as if I’m a little detached from what is going on in the world – yesterday I did a huge long post without mentioning Remembrance Sunday. I think this is because when I write on here…
Sunday Poem – Christopher Reid and musings on the Phantom
Afternoon everybody. It’s been a whole week since I’ve updated the blog – I’ve been playing trumpet in Phantom of the Opera this week for The Lakes School. This has involved teaching all day and then driving straight to Windermere,…
Sunday Poem – Ann Wilson
Even though I’ve been on half term for the last week I’ve felt really busy. I’ve been getting ready for a new part of my job for Cumbria Music Service which is delivering poetry workshops in schools. My first one…
Strange search terms and last minute readings
It’s half term week this week, and I’ve been lounging around for a lot of it. On Monday, I spent the day editing the Holland Haul Anthology, which is the anthology that comes from the course I went on with…
Sharon Olds and late night driving
Last night I drove to Sheffield because Sharon Olds was reading at the ‘Off the Shelf’ festival there. I was meeting the lovely Carola Luther there – who just happens to have a Sunday poem on this blog – Grasmere…
Sunday Poem – Elizabeth Venn
Getting the Sunday poem in close to the wire today! I have no excuse really other than that I’ve been reading all the books that I bought at yesterday’s Litfest in Lancaster. The outstanding readers for me were William Letford,…
Abbot Hall Residential Course
Good evening folks! Bookings are already starting to take off for the Residential Course at Abbot Hall, Grange-over–Sands in February next year (11th-13th) I’ve just been speaking to the hotel manager, the lovely Amanda Fogg, and she has agreed that…
Sunday Poem: Niall Campbell
Today’s Sunday Poem is by Niall Campbell. I met Niall in 2011 at the Eric Gregory Award Night when we all went to London to the Calvary and Guards Club to collect our cheques and swan about being posh. The winners of…
September is the Cruellest Month – Deborah Parkin
A while ago I was contacted by David Ward, the Literature Officer at the Theatre by The Lake in Keswick who had seen one of my poems in “The Weekly Word” which is an email newsletter circulated by New Writing…
