Keith Armstrong obituary
My friend Keith Armstrong, who has died of cancer aged 67, was a dynamic activist for the rights of people with disabilities. He was also highly creative, working as an artist, poet and musician; and...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Ballad by Anne Askew
One of the earliest women to publish verse in English, Askew faced harrowing persecution and her suffering sings fiercely in this defiant story of faithThe Ballad which Anne Askew Made and Sang When...
View ArticleJohn Horder obituary
My brother, John Horder, who has died aged 80, was known as the “hugging poet”. He was interested in the teachings of the India mystic Meher Baba, whom he called a “hugging genius”, and Baba’s maxim...
View ArticleHuddled masses? Losers! Trump v Statue of Liberty
We asked 21 poets: what would Donald Trump like to see written at the base of the Statue of Liberty?Trump proposes law to cut immigration numbers by half in 10 yearsWhite House aide and CNN anchor...
View ArticleWhat poem would Trump like to see on the Statue of Liberty? Share yours
We’d like you to join our Lady Liberty poetry challenge by submitting a poem that riffs on Emma Lazarus’s The New ColossusDonald Trump recently proposed to cut legal immigration to the US by half over...
View ArticleA 'gurt' plan: National Poetry Day to celebrate England's local words
From the Bristol word for great, via Merseyside’s ‘geg in’ and London’s ‘fam’, 12 authors are writing poems celebrating language tied to English regions From the Berkshire term for a woodlouse,...
View ArticleFrench Poetry from Medieval to Modern Times review – warm humanity, brave...
Editor Patrick McGuinness has assembled a rich and wide-ranging anthology that shows the strong links between French and English‘Il faut être absolument moderne,” wrote Rimbaud: we must be absolutely...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Helpline by Suzannah Evans
A dystopian narrative, this fragmentary story compellingly depicts a familiar world gone terribly wrong with mystery, horror and a few glints of lyric beautyHelplineIn the call centre at the end of the...
View Article'England hath need of thee': appeal to save Milton's Paradise Lost cottage
Charity seeks to build on lottery pledge to secure a lasting future for museum in home where writer completed his epic poem on the fall of manPointing to Wordsworth’s comment more than 200 years ago...
View ArticleAdrian Dunbar on directing Homer on a Donegal beach – and his fears for Line...
The actor best known as Superintendent Ted Hastings in Line of Duty is bringing Homer and Heaney to County Donegal. Our writer joins him for oysters as he takes his dogs for a windswept walk along the...
View ArticleThe New Depressus: readers' poems for Trump's America
After a senior Trump adviser dismissed the famous poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty, we asked readers to reimagine The New Colossus in a style that would be to Trump’s likingContinue reading...
View ArticleWhen Milton met Galileo: the collision of cultures that helped shape Paradise...
A transformative visit to Catholic Florence inspired the Puritan poet to write his epic masterpiece, a BBC documentary revealsIt is an epic poem with a daunting reputation that has struck fear into the...
View ArticlePoem of the week: One day he came back with news … by Kenneth Steven
This poem, taken from the Scottish poet’s reimagining of the tale of Naoise and Deirdre, sees the doomed lovers enjoy a timeless day at an Argyll beachOne day he came back with newsof a white strand...
View ArticleThe Last Poets review – godfathers of hip-hop deliver grit, wit and raging...
Jazz Cafe, LondonThe ever-shifting collective vindicate their status as rap royalty with a stripped-back show that fuses knockabout humour with scorching rallying criesMore revered than heard over...
View ArticleDavid Gill obituary
My father, David Gill, who has died aged 82, was a poet, teacher and lifelong activist for peace and justice.His first post was at Bedales, the progressive boarding school in Hampshire, where he was...
View ArticleBenjamin Zephaniah: ‘I’m almost 60 and I’m still angry. Everyone told me I...
The celebrated dub poet might grow his own vegetables in the shires – but he is still in a revolutionary mood. From carnival surveillance to the abandonment of the Grenfell families, he says Britain...
View ArticleSo They Call You Pisher! by Michael Rosen review – style and humour
The poet’s account of his early years in north London is a moving tale of family life enlivened by his trademark humour“If you didn’t know whether to risk saying something, what’s the worst that could...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Epilogue by Robert Lowell
Lowell casts a critical and concerned eye over the failures of poetry – but his masterful, free-ish verse answers the question of why the form matters at allEpilogueThose blessèd structures, plot and...
View ArticleEdinburgh book festival with Colson Whitehead and others – books podcast
Subscribe and review: iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud and Acast. Join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter.On this week’s show we visit the Edinburgh international book festival, where we nab...
View ArticleFrom Evelyn Waugh to Elizabeth I: Vivien Leigh's eclectic library up for auction
Personal inscriptions from Winston Churchill, Orson Welles and AA Milne in the actor and avid reader’s library are expected to sell for more than £500,000Vivien Leigh’s star-studded library, including...
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