Category Archives: Reading

Watch Skelton Yawngrave TV

Posted on April 6, 2020 by

Hope all casual droppers-in to my blog are fine! Here’s a wee YouTube channel called Skelton Yawngrave TVwhere I am hoping, health allowing, to upload a chapter a day of my story Magnificent Grace during this time of lockdown. Continue reading →

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Exploring Janet Sutherland’s poetry

Posted on November 6, 2019 by

There are perhaps only a couple-of-dozen poets I find myself returning to time and again. In the last year, however, Janet Sutherland has become one of them. I own her four collections from Shearsman Books, which are, in order of publication,  Burning … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Reading, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Unlocking a trove of dark and lyrical stories

Posted on June 4, 2019 by

Keyhole, stories by Matthew G. Rees, published by Three Impostors Press Modulating beautifully through passages of horror, humour and the supernatural Matthew G. Rees collection Keyhole is a hugely enjoyable collection of short stories. They juxtapose a grainy matter-of-factness that … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Horror, Reading | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Doorways to Hell

Posted on April 26, 2019 by

In a Bloomsbury bookshop last October, two days after the death of a close friend, I found myself in the store’s horror section. On a whim I bought a collection of disturbing short stories by Robert Aickman called Compulsory Games. … Continue reading →

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A lost friend, agent hunting, and new collections of short stories

Posted on November 16, 2018 by

My friend Janet Summerton died on October 1st at the age of 79.  I was heavily involved in her care during her last two months, and that of her husband Ken who survives her. Janet was a lateral thinking champion … Continue reading →

Posted in a writer's life, Genius, Prose, Publishing, Reading | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino, and grappling with what’s difficult

Posted on June 26, 2018 by

When I meet a difficult text, it invariably makes me think of the Genesis story of Jacob and the Angel, or at least its depictions in art.  I like Jacob Epstein’s statue Jacob and the Angel (1940) in the Tate, … Continue reading →

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Poetry omnivore

Posted on February 21, 2018 by

For me, it’s all been about poetry so far this year. Sarah Barnsley, Robin Houghton and I have been putting together an anthology from Telltale, about which there will be more news shortly. Meanwhile I’ve been editing my own 24-poem, … Continue reading →

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He who saw the deep

Posted on November 15, 2016 by

I listen to half a dozen podcasts every week. One of these is from BBC Radio 4 In Our Time, which is hosted by Melvyn Bragg, takes a scholarly subject (from the sciences and arts) every week and discusses it with experts. … Continue reading →

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Jessica Mookherjee’s ‘The Swell’ – hear her with Judy Brown, Siegfried Baber and Michaela Ridgway 19th Oct in Lewes

Posted on October 16, 2016 by

Gillian Clarke’s remarks on the pamphlet flap for Jessica Mookherjee’s Telltale Press pamphlet  The Swell are spot on. Among them she says Jess’s poems are ‘Bold, fiery, truthful, they tell an original story with power’. Other than reading The Swell at a fairly late … Continue reading →

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More on project 154

Posted on May 22, 2016 by

I received my copy of the Live Canon Project 154 book a day or so ago. All of Shakespeare’s sonnets, with a response by 154 contemporary poets including friends like Robin Houghton, Antony Mair, Sue Rose and many more. As … Continue reading →

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