Category Archives: Events

Last Thursday’s book-launch

Last Thursday’s Oxford launch for Peter Hughes and Vahni Capildeo was by some margin the most fun I’ve had on licensed premises with a portable PA system. Both poets read brilliantly; the audience was engaged and responsive and laughed at all the right moments; the Oxford Wine Café’s friendly staff and delicious wines kept everyone suitably lubricated; and if the number of books bought and signed is any indication, the poems genuinely resonated with people. Continue reading

Oxford Launch: Vahni Capildeo & Peter Hughes, Thursday 7th April

I’m delighted to announce the Oxford launch of Vahni Capildeo’s Measures of Expatriation (a Poetry Book Society choice) and Peter Hughes’s Cavalcanty on Thursday 7th April 2016 at 6pm, The Oxford Wine Café on the corner of Little Clarendon Street and Walton Street, Oxford.

These are two of the most exciting books to have been published in the UK in recent months and I’ll have more to say in a future post about why I rate them so highly. But for now the essential details are:

– Doors open 6pm, readings at 6.30.
– Free admission and free wine while stocks last, but please let me know if you’re coming so we can cater accordingly (you can use the contact form here).
– The Oxford Wine Café, Little Clarendon Street, Jericho, Oxford, OX1 2HU

Cheltenham calling…

The Cheltenham Poetry Festival started in earnest yesterday. In a spectacular piece of bad timing, I spent the day on a flight to the US for my day-job and will be out of the country for most of the festival before heading to Cheltenham on Sunday 3rd May for our latest Rewiring History live event followed by a joint reading with Claire Trévien. Which means I’m going to miss out on some fantastic poetry in the intervening 10 days. Continue reading

Next Month’s Poetry Reading

For the past week or so I’ve been revisiting work by the poets who’ll be reading in Oxford three weeks today on Sunday 5th October (doors open 6.30 for 7pm start; £5/£4 concs; The Jericho Tavern, Walton St, Oxford).

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We have a fantastic mix of readers and poetic traditions. Here’s a quick overview: Continue reading

Andrew McNeillie and Peter McDonald at the Albion Beatnik

The Albion Beatnik bookshop on Walton Street has become one of the most prolific live poetry venues in Oxford, with owner Dennis Harrison serving up so many high-quality poetry evenings that it’s getting easier to count the good poets who haven’t yet read there. Without exception I’ve enjoyed every Albion Beatnik event I’ve been to and am looking forward to a lot more in the future.

On Friday a group of us went to hear Andrew McNeillie and Peter McDonald in a well-matched double-act. Continue reading

Sasha Dugdale & Olivia McCannon at Woodstock

Last night I got to hear two of my favourite poets for the first time, reading alongside the excellent David Constantine at the Woodstock Poetry Festival. When you first hear someone whose work you really admire there’s always a nagging worry. What if they blurt out their lines like chopped up prose or chant them like Yeats at a séance? What if their delivery is rushed or broken or just plain bad?

In this case the what-ifs were unfounded. Continue reading