'Think of yourself as a baby dropped in a swimming pool. You won't drown, you'll instinctively know what to do, and... once you get over the shock of the medium, may even find you're enjoying the experience.'
'Perhaps your subject went away; the war ended; you moved from your special place; the poet of youth grew old, or became Poet Laureate.'
A change of place, finding a new muse, pausing on a London bridge, all can stimulate the writer's imagination again, says John Greening. From a sexual potency operation for W.B.Yeats, to Clive James’ terminal illness, there are many ways to trigger inspiration.
29-11-2018
Ali Knight explores the murky depths of the Grand Union Canal in Londonand explains how it inspires her crime fiction.
John Greening takes us to the poetic village of Little Gidding and its nearby literary landmarks.
Miranda Miller introduces us to Henry James’ Lamb House in Rye and its connections with various writers.
'There are poets I love but will hesitate to read if I am in the middle of writing a poem because I know their style is infectious; Ted Hughes for instance, or Seamus Heaney. There's something Heaney-esque in every male poet of a certain age.'
Can coincidence, that seemingly magical conjunction of events, play a part in poetry? John Greening considers some famous and more personal examples of its power.
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Should poetry be about something — other than itself? asks John Greening, considering some famous examples of works that have defied this question, as well as others which have dared to be topical, even at the risk of becoming irrelevant over time.
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09-02-2017
MIranda Miller works to finish a novel, visits an exhibition related to an old one, and considers whether she wants to ‘be a brand’ in the brave new world of 21st century publishing, in her audio diary.
We also feature two recent pieces from the Vox section of our website, 'Letter to my younger self', from John Greening and Mary Colson.
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