Memorial for Oscar Wilde's grave in Paris – archive, 12 February 1912
12 February 1912: Jacob Epstein is commissioned to design a memorial for the Irish author’s tomb in Père Lachaise cemeteryRelated: Oscar Wilde's lipstick-covered Paris tomb to be protectedLondon,...
View ArticleLove lines: the Book Illustration Competition longlist
This year’s prize from the Folio Society and House of Illustration called for images to accompany love poetry from Imtiaz Dharker, Emily Dickinson and John Donne. Here are the chosen entries, and the...
View ArticleRural idyll where Ancient Mariner met Kubla Khan saved for nation
Mystery buyer is snapping up the home where Coleridge and Wordsworth composed some of their greatest worksThe dilapidated Grade II West Country home where William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge...
View ArticleOn my radar: Rafe Spall’s cultural highlights
The actor on the resilience of Lemn Sissay, Amy Schumer’s sidesplitting comedy and a fish stew to die forRafe Spall was born in Camberwell, south London, in March 1983. He joined the National Youth...
View ArticleIn brief: The Crying Book; Right After the Weather; The Lost Properties of...
A personal story of tears, a novel of mid-life epiphanies and a memoir of grief and loss all enthralCorsair, £14.99, 207ppContinue reading...
View ArticleThe best books about new beginnings
Uplifting titles from Tara Westover’s memoir Educated to Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City offer escape and inspirationEat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert has long been the hoary cliche of new...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Bright is the Ring of Words by Robert Louis Stevenson
I was surprised how much impact this Victorian classic holds. An untarnished golden oldie? I think soBright is the ring of wordsWhen the right man rings them,Fair the fall of songsWhen the singer sings...
View ArticleLeah Fritz obituary
My friend Leah Fritz, who has died aged 88, was an American writer known for her support of the civil rights, peace and feminist movements. In her two books, Thinking Like a Woman (1975) and Dreamers...
View ArticleFrom rep to reps: can a 'Shakespeare gym' solve the crisis in verse-speaking?
The Royal Shakespeare Company has vowed to drill the Bard’s rhythms into its actors – but our alienation from his language runs deeper ‘Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you,...
View ArticleNorthern accents, poetry and truth | Letters
Readers respond to poet Ian McMillan’s complaint about the lack of newsreaders with northern accentsIan McMillan bemoans the fact that there are “no newsreaders with northern accents” (Not trusted with...
View ArticlePoetry book of the month: Wing by Matthew Francis – review
This shimmering new collection dissects the natural world with a wondering, meticulous eyeIt is becoming harder to find modern poetry that is unequivocally at the service of nature. I am not sure why...
View ArticleWilliam Oxley obituary
My friend William Oxley, who has died aged 80, was a prolific poet who, in addition to 31 poetry publications, produced numerous books of literary criticism, philosophy, fiction, plays and biography....
View ArticlePoem of the week: Daft Patter by Barry MacSweeney
The power of memory, for ever young, resounds in this late work by the a poet balancing the ‘literary’ and the vernacularDaft PatterIf anyone knows about sullen loneliness, you doYet there’s a grin in...
View ArticleRathbones Folio prize: Zadie Smith makes female-dominated shortlist
Eight books in contention for £30,000 award that has never been won by a woman include Zadie Smith’s story collection Grand Union and poet Fiona Benson’s Vertigo & GhostZadie Smith and Forward...
View ArticleSimon Armitage plans national 'headquarters' for poetry in Leeds
Poet laureate lays out ideas to give the country an official home for the practice, in line with other ‘national art forms’The art world has the National Gallery; drama has the National Theatre. Now...
View Article'I flip the male gaze on its head': the woman behind Cynthia Nixon's viral video
Claire Rothstein’s Be a Lady They Said is a fashion film for the #MeToo generation and an unflinching look at the impossible standards forced on womenWithin six days of being posted on Vimeo and...
View ArticleRishi Sunak: reality check for a brand stirred up over a cuppa | Rebecca...
What with the chancellor’s brew-up and Simon Armitage’s new national poetry centre, Yorkshire is trending. As is Charlotte AwberyLet’s call it a brew-haha. When Rishi Sunak tweeted a picture of himself...
View ArticleJohn Carey: ‘In my teens I fancied myself as a poet’
The outspoken critic on his new history of poetry, the relevance of authors’ private lives, and why he won’t be going to see the latest film version of EmmaThe critic John Carey, 85, is emeritus Merton...
View ArticleScotland leads the way in celebrating poetry | Letter
After Simon Armitage proposed a UK poetry headquarters, Jerry Peyton points out that Scotland already has one, established by writer and activist Tessa RansfordSimon Armitage proposes a UK poetry HQ...
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