Peter Kenny
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Poetry: reasons to be cheerful
An imaginary helicopter is a valuable possession. When I finally stop ignoring the helicopter in the room, I clamber in and rise vertically to peer down at life. (Google Earth has diminished the freshness of this metaphor for ever, of course, but you get what I mean). I did it this morning, and this is…
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Victor Hugo and Guernsey
Having fallen down a flight of stairs two days ago, I have spent a good deal of time on my back applying icepacks to a torn thigh muscle. While trying to write in a horizontal position, I realise that I am feeling homesick for Guernsey. I’ve been glancing at a translation of Victor Hugo poems by Harry Guest called (fittingly enough) The distance, The…
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A bit of bardic business
Quite a bit of bardic business this week. On Wednesday I did a Telltale and Friends reading with Martin Mallone a top poet who also edits The Interpreter’s House and finished the evening by accidentally setting his poetry file on fire. He is currently writing about the first world war, and there was some laughter as he…
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Two boyhood heroes: Steve Howe and Roger Dean
I had a two for one deal on boyhood heroes at Trading Boundaries on the 12 of April. Not only did I see legendary guitarist Steve Howe but he was introduced to the stage by Roger Dean. Steve Howe is a fabulous guitarist. His self-taught mastery of musical genres from classical to country blues, plus an extraordinary musical…
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In search of a new language
The poet Tomas Tranströmer died in March 2015. Six months before his death, I happened to buy New Collected Poems, translated by Robin Fulton and published by Bloodaxe. I immediately loved his writing. Here is a poem from that book which succinctly expresses something I have tried to define for years. From March 1979 Weary of all…
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Reading in Lewes on 15 April 15
Really excited to be doing this reading in Lewes, and to meet Martin Malone, editor of The Interpreter’s House, Helen Fletcher who is trekking from Carlisle to share her poetry with us and Ryan Whatley an exciting new poet whose work Robin Houghton and I read recently and really liked. A bonus is that it that the reading…
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Among School Children
Last week I spent a day working with 32 more able 11-year old writers from schools in Brighton. This was organised by my friend Dawn Daniel with Clare Blencowe at Downs School. The day was themed around contrasts, and I worked with them on poetry in the morning session. The warm ups were about locating…
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The Body Shop and Alison Jackson’s royal lookalikes
Alison Jackson is an artist and filmmaker who began using lookalikes to ‘depict our suspicions’ of the private lives of people in the public eye. Jane Mosse (pictured above holding a corgi) is Britain’s leading Camilla lookalike and is a close friend. I know she regularly finds herself swept up into various Alison Jackson projects such as those for…
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‘The Nightwork’ reviewed in The Frogmore Papers
Delighted to find The Nightwork reviewed in The Frogmore Papers by the excellent Charlotte Gann — whose poem In the classroom of touch in the last issue of Rialto absolutely blew me away. I particularly appreciated Charlotte noticing: “…how it (The Nightwork) invites the reader into its own world of atmospheres. I have real sympathy for the almost…
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The Devil’s Goat on Guernsey
My friend, Kiwi board game inventor Amanda Milne’s new game is now at prototype stage and is being play tested. Its working title is The Devil’s Goat and is based on Guernsey. Turns out it was sparked off by a children’s short story I had written for the Guernsey Literary Festival. As this story was published as a very limited one-off,…
Peter Kenny: a writer's notebook 