Can you match these homes to the poets that lived in them? – quiz
To mark World Poetry Day, use your literary intuition – or your eye for real estate – to house some of the world’s greatest poets. But can you figure out which bard is at home in each house? Muse on...
View ArticleIn search of lost time with my father, Clive James
Angela Neustatter meets artist Claerwen James and her father, writer and broadcaster Clive James – and finds he is making up for all the years he wasn’t around for his familySince Claerwen James...
View ArticleOn my radar: Polly Samson’s cultural highlights
The author and journalist on Richard Linklater’s Waking Life, Milton’s Paradise Lost, the magic of Nick Cave and puppet shows in SalzburgNovelist and journalist Polly Samson was born in London in 1962....
View ArticlePoem of the week: Landscape by John Hewitt
This unusual sonnet reminds the reader to appreciate the utilitarian and social dimensions of the natural world as well as its aesthetic beautyContinue reading...
View ArticleTapestry mystery and the Kynaston landslip | Letters
Re the “mystery” of the Bodleian Library’s Sheldon tapestry (Report, 21 March), a massive landslip at Kynaston, possibly caused by an earthquake, took place over three days, starting on 17 February...
View ArticleIn praise of Venie Holmgren: at 92, still an activist, adventurer and poet
The Western Australian’s voice has been heard at anti-war and anti-logging rallies, in pubs and prisons, ferries and demos, and universities from Austin to CalcuttaWhile the only poet named among...
View ArticleSentenced to Life review – Clive James’s poems from death’s door
The critic and wit’s return to poetry is suffused with loss and guilt, yet although his impending death is ever-present in the verse, his humour still shines through“It’s not that I’m afraid to die,”...
View ArticleMan Booker international: the shortlist - in pictures
From Hungary to Guadeloupe and the Republic of Congo, the ten shortlisted writers inhabit literary territories that are new to many English readers. Chair of the jury Edwin Frank introduces a stellar...
View ArticleRichard by Carol Ann Duffy
The poet laureate’s eulogy, written for Richard III’s re-interment at Leicester Cathedral, to be read by Benedict CumberbatchRichardMy bones, scripted in light, upon cold soil,a human braille. My...
View ArticleReaders recommend: songs about islands – results
Sailing from the Hebrides to Hong Kong via the Pixies to Mendelssohn, RR’s old sea dog sonofwebcore picks a beautiful list of lands and soundscapes from last week’s topicWhy are some islands enchanted?...
View ArticleKeep it in the ground: a poem by Carol Ann Duffy
The poet laureate’s Parliament poem on pollution and climate change accompanied the launch of the Guardian’s Keep it in the ground campaignParliamentThen in the writers’ wood,Continue reading...
View ArticleSwedish poet Thomas Tranströmer dies, age 83
The Nobel Prize winner, who was also a psychologist, passed away in Stockholm after a short illnessThe Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2011, died in Stockholm...
View ArticleSecret memoir uncovers the real life and loves of doomed war poet Rupert Brooke
On the centenary of the his death, a cache of love letters brings the elusive golden boy of Edwardian England into focusOn 23 April a bundle of neglected love letters and a devastating, secret memoir,...
View ArticleHollie Poetry: woman versus world – one poem at a time
Performance poet Hollie Poetry on why always wanting to throw up before a gig is a small price to pay for spreading the wordLong before she quit her day job and adopted the stage name Hollie Poetry,...
View ArticleHuman Work review – enticing poems fresh from the pot
Sean Borodale explores the mysteries of culinary transformation in dynamic, sensual poems written as he cookedThese wonderful, original and sustaining poems were written while Sean Borodale cooked...
View ArticleJohn Hegley performs I am a Guillemot - children's books podcast
Find out everything you would ever, ever need to know about sustainable, self-restrainable Guillemot, who uses its bill a lot, in this immortal poem by John Hegley Continue reading...
View ArticlePoem of the week: April Fools’ Day by Elaine Feinstein
A biographical sketch of a misfit soul carried into the carnage of the first world war rises to an elegy for a ‘life half lived’April Fools’ Dayin memory of Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918)Does anybody know...
View ArticleNicholas Lezard’s paperback of the week: Complete Poems by Jon Silkin – review
At last, this poet of many voices receives his due – with a postwar anthology all of his ownIn 1998, two similar poetry anthologies were published: The Penguin Book of Poetry from Britain and Ireland...
View ArticleTomas Tranströmer obituary
Swedish poet lauded for his ‘translucent images’ and unforgettable metaphors who won the Nobel prize for literature in 2011Though the dozen or so collections by the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, who...
View ArticlePhilip Pullman joins calls to scrap baseline tests for four and five-year-olds
The author adds his voice to that of educationalists, early years specialists and psychologists in calling for the ‘statistically invalid’ assessments be stoppedChildren’s author Philip Pullman has...
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