By the mid-1970s my natural playground was the slagged cliffs and green-slimed rocks of Workington beach. There was a rent in the cliffs that let you down over the edge, sliding steeply towards a hole in the cliff face and clamber down through a cave that stank of algae and piss, out onto the coal-jewelled…
Lockdown of Literary Monsters
The long winter lockdown months led to many pages being turned. Maybe the time of year, with thoughts of spring and rejuvenation influenced my choice of books. All four had familiar themes; a quest for knowledge, mystery, macabre, and demons. It was a lockdown of literary monsters. Monster is too strong a word for these…
Jacob Polley and a Jar of Honey
Back in those heady days of 2009, with the news dominated by bankers’ bonuses and MP’s expenses, the BBC launched a campaign to let poetry into our lives. On 28th January that year, BBC Director-General Mark Thompson announced a deeper commitment to arts and music on the BBC, with a range of initiatives to support…
Wordsworth’s Grasmere Walk
Bring Wordsworth to life on this 5-mile walk through Wordsworth’s Grasmere, visiting the houses he lived in and the poems he wrote. Created from a brief to sell a literary walking holiday through Wordsworth’s Grasmere based at HF Holiday’s Coniston Hotel. A. HAMMERSCAR [Park GR NY 337053. Follow track NE then N to…
Moontide by Niall Campbell
Like the title, Niall Campbell brings a nocturnal ebb and flow to the sixty-two poems of his first book-length collection. Moontide by Niall Campbell | Photo © Bloodaxe Books Campbell’s début pamphlet After the Creel Fleet (Happenstance Press 2012) introduced one of the most distinctive lyrical voices to emerge from Scotland in recent years. Campbell…