Month: March 2016

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Poetry Non-Stop – National Poetry Writing Month

poetry books - National Poetry Writing Month

Poetry Books

April is National Poetry Writing Month (also known as #NaPoWriMo). The challenge is to write a new poem each day throughout the month. It started in America in 2003, and has grown since then with poets everywhere encouraging each other to take the challenge and get writing. Pattrick Widdess, a poet based in Wales who regularly performs his work and has had poetry published in a number of magazines, has written Poetry Non-Stop, an inspirational guide, ready for National Poetry Writing Month 2016.    Continue reading →

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Book Review: The Past by Tessa Hadley

Book - The Past by Tessa HadleyI was fortunate enough to attend an event featuring Tessa Hadley, organised by Cardiff University as part of their visiting writers series. She read a short story, and I was impressed by her reading voice. It was strange really, that approximately 30 grown adults should sit silently listening to someone reading in an upstairs bar, in the middle of Cardiff City Centre. But it worked. Hadley has a reading voice that takes you straight into her characters’ world, and it’s also the way she writes – you don’t notice the writing because you’re so intent on the story.    Continue reading →

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Cardiff Book Talk: with authors John Harding and Gaynor Arnold

Lewis Carroll writer

Self Portrait of Lewis Carroll

Cardiff Book Talk is run by Cardiff University’s School of English, Communication and Philosophy. Described on their website as “a University book group with a difference”, it is certainly nothing like any book group I’ve been to before. I was impressed that their events are entirely free and open to anyone. Most seem to be discussion-centred, with academics from various disciplines addressing the literature from their perspective. However, this particular session was an opportunity to actually meet the authors in question: John Harding and Gaynor Arnold.    Continue reading →

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Interview with Roy Marshall – Poet & Blogger

Poet Roy MarshallI met Roy Marshall on a residential writing course at Tŷ Newydd, in North Wales, in 2012. Since then he has published his first full collection The Sun Bathers, with Shoestring Press. He has had poems published in a number of magazines, blogs regularly about the writing process and reviews the work of other poets. I started the interview by asking him to tell me how it all began…    Continue reading →

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Book Review: Where My Heart Used To Beat by Sebastian Faulks

Book - Where my heart used to beat by Sebastian FaulksAt the Bath Literature Festival Faulks spoke about his earlier work as an attempt to discover “how we got to this point”, whilst his later books examine the question “What are we?”. He described Where my Heart used to beat, his 13th novel, as a way of “wrapping up all of that”, a culmination of all his previous writing.     Continue reading →

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Bath Literature Festival: Part 3 – The Poetry Salon

Rebecca Perry - bookThe final part of my day at the Bath Literature Festival was a ‘Poetry Salon’ (a combined interview and reading) with Tim Liardet and Rebecca Perry. Neither of these poets were known to me prior to the event, but when deciding which events to attend, I had looked them up and thought their work sounded interesting.   Continue reading →

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Bath Literature Festival: Part 2 – Jane Austen

Jane Austen CentreAfter hearing Sebastian Faulks being interviewed about his work, I headed out into Bath to explore, excited to discover the famous sites as mentioned in Jane Austen’s novels. I headed North, up Milsom Street, where the Tilney family had lodgings in Northanger Abbey, and was pleased to discover that there is now a Waterstones there. I think Jane would have been pleased.    Continue reading →