The Motorbike pipped his horn but the drunk guy panicked, didn’t know which way to turn and ran into the path of the motorbike. It was a big motorbike. The bike rider flipped over the handle bars and onto the pavement while his bike hurtled towards me, stopping a foot or so away. Read more [...]

Tonight I read at Bookslam in Notting Hill, Westbourne Park, with the incredible Mark Thomas. He was brilliant and so too the other guest, the singer.  But I am tired and I think it shows in my reading. Read more [...]

Tonight I read at The South Bank in The Blue Room which was full. It was my book launch, sort of. It wasn’t really a launch, it was a reading and a talk, part of Poetry International. For the first time I saw Washing Lines an exhibition of poems on washing lines in a darkened room filled with music on the subject of Freedom of Expression. The audience walk into the room with a torch and discover the poems. It is performance poetry at its best. Read more [...]

The day begins in Leamington Spa. It snowed last night. I stayed at Eclipse a gorgeous boutique hotel. By 9.45am I am reading on stage in a college at a conference for arts and kids in care.  It’s Read more [...]

Ted Hughes (1930-1998) was born at 1 Aspinall Street Mytholmroyd on the 17th August 1930. He lived there until he was 7 when his family moved to Mexborough. During his childhood he spent many hours exploring the local countryside. These experiences and the influences of the landscape on him were to inform much of his later poetry. He's best known as one of the greatest poets of his generation Read more [...]

I wake at 5am in London and by 3pm I’m on stage  in Utrecht in Holland  I’m reading for Crime Jazz. I love playing  Holland, the audience is warm.  Outside in the square stands Read more [...]

I am up at 8am and for the first time this month on my bike. I've missed my bike. I race from Hackney through islington to angel down to kings cross and up the euston road to Marleybone. Marleybone is beautiful in the morning, as the shops are waking and the stylish Italian cafe's hiss with espresso machine bluster. Read more [...]

I wake at 7am then on the train at 10am from Sheffield to London. I arrive at one oclock on a saturday afternoon then get straight to the studio in Soho at 2pm to do a down the line BBC radio interview with Christine Hall who is making a documentary about The Arvon Foundation. Read more [...]

I travel from Durham back down country to Sheffield and it's beautiful train station. I know that sounds a bit nerdy but if you see the station and how it has been totally transformed you will see what I mean: an elongated steel sphere snakes from the station, water pours along it. It's beautiful. Read more [...]

I read tonight at Durham Literature Festival. It's an interesting gig. I am less than an hour from Scotland and could run for it right now.  It's part of Durham Literature Festival's multicultural Read more [...]