Pam Ayres, nation’s poetry sweetheart? For many, she still is!
When I retired from my newspaper job a dozen or so years ago, and was looking forward to pursuing my new life as a poet, of sorts, my colleagues gave me as one of my parting gifts a copy of the selected poems of Pam Ayres. I took this in the spirit in which it was intended. Yesterday I went to see her perform her poetry for the first time.
For many people, Pam Ayres is the kind of poet they l...
10th May 2025
‘Let’s call a spud a spud’: poetry crowd-pleasers Henry Normal and Brian Bilston
Henry Normal is a stand-up comic supreme, who with fellow poet Brian Bilston, has been attracting bumper and appreciative audiences during the pair’s current tour.
He has maintained a prolific output since returning to poetry after retiring from a glittering career in television as a co-writer an...
9th May 2025
Oenironaut: Leah Larwood, Indigo Dreams
Leah Larwood is an award-winning poet, a freelance writer and a gestalt psychotherapist. She has an MA in creative writing and her poems have won or been placed in a number of poetry competitions. One...
4th May 2025
The Hawthorn Bride: Victoria Gatehouse, Indigo Dreams
Victoria Gatehouse is a zoologist, award-winning poet and children’s writer. Her poetry has been broadcast on BBC radio and published in several leading magazines. Her pamphlet The Mechanics of Love (...
27th April 2025
This Transfigured Chapel of the Threads: Sarah Law, Resource Publications
This collection of one hundred short poems is inspired by the life of Carmelite nun Thérèse of Lisieux, who died in 1897 aged just 24. In her elegant introduction to the poems, Sarah Law explains how ...
11th April 2025
I Sing to the Greenhearts: Maggie Harris, Seren
Maggie Harris was born in Guyana and now lives in Broadstairs, Kent. She has won the Guyana Prize for Literature, was regional winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2014, and won the Wales Poet...
27th March 2025
Significant Wow: Emily Cotterill, Seren
This first full-length collection by Cardiff-based poet Emily Cotterill follows on from her debut poetry pamphlet The Day of the Flying Ants published by Smith / Doorstop in 2019 which was selected by...
13th March 2025
Teesside poets say fond farewell to Smokestack
It was a foggy night on Teesside and a warm if slightly melancholy evening for the final farewell of Smokestack Books, which publisher Andy Croft closed for new titles last Christmas after 20 years. P...
10th March 2025
‘We’ll be back …’: closing words of compere at Words on the Wall ‘finale’
All good things must come to an end – or at least, a pause, in the case of Hexham’s very popular poetry event Words on the Wall. There was an impressive turnout for what masterly compere Joe Williams ...
10th March 2025
Janus: Catherine Ayres, Indigo Dreams
Sometimes slim volumes open up much bigger worlds and pack a punch beyond 30 pages of text. The title and the cover of Janus suggest a gaze, both forward and backward. The structure of the book, thoug...
3rd March 2025
