The Professor of Truth by James Robertson – review
James Robertson's impressive study of grief was inspired by the Lockerbie plane bombingIt is no accident that the two sections of James Robertson's new novel are subtitled "Ice" and "Fire", reminding...
View ArticleCooking with Bones by Jess Richards – review
The follow-up to her admired debut, Jess Richards's second novel is a magical mystery tour that loses its wayIf the fable is a wisdom delivery system, then its function remains ever-relevant: to...
View ArticleSummer voyages: In Pursuit of Spring by Edward Thomas
Written just before the first world war, this vivid account of a journey through the English countryside is a vivid and poignant portrait of a vanished ageIn Pursuit of Spring is the classic literary...
View ArticleEngland's forests: if you go down to the woods at night …
Leave your Hollywood preconceptions behind, forests are wonderful places to visit after darkThere is something of the night about forests. Even at the height of summer, even under the midday sun, they...
View ArticleRobert Frost's snowy walk tops Radio 4 count of nation's favourite poems
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening displaces verse by Kipling and Eliot as most-requested on BBC's Poetry Please programmePolls to discover the nation's favourite poem have traditionally crowned...
View ArticleJoyce Carol Oates attacked for 'distasteful' portrayal of Robert Frost
Short story 'Lovely, Dark, Deep' paints the much-garlanded poet as a racist, sexist boorThe author Joyce Carol Oates has angered friends and relatives of the acclaimed US poet Robert Frost by writing a...
View ArticleThe Poetry Archive makes itself new | Andrew Motion
A decade ago we invented a great new online resource for poetry lovers. Mellifluous new bells and whistles have just made it even greaterRichard Carrington and I launched the online Poetry Archive a...
View ArticleIs Jeremy Paxman right about new poetry's inaccessibility?
'Poets now seem to be talking to other poets... [not] people as a whole,' said the outgoing Newsnight presenter and Forward prize judge. Really? Help us compile examples of poems in film, TV, radio or...
View ArticleA landscape saved by poets
Fields have been preserved from polytunnels not because of wildlife or the view, but because Robert Frost and Edward Thomas once tramped over themHow many applications to put up polytunnels have been...
View ArticleReading American cities: books about Cincinnati
From the origins of Uncle Tom to the stories of revolutionary, radical women, Michael Griffith takes us on a tour of literary Cincinnati – including Toni Morrison, Edmund White and a drive to attract...
View ArticleReading American cities: books about Miami
Miami’s heady optimism has always been matched by dangerous reality, a fissure that runs through its literature. P Scott Cunningham takes us on a journey through city in fiction, theatre and...
View ArticleIs it time to mend fences with the EU? | Letters
Strange. I used my Steve Bell Jeremy Corbyn mug for the first time today (Letters, 25 November). The china was strong but fine enough to make an excellent cup of tea. I thought the tea leaves were...
View ArticlePoster poems: fear
From the personal to the global, there is an uneasy abundance of things to be scared of at the moment. Dare you face up to some in verse?Fear is all around us at the moment. Every time you read or...
View ArticleRichard Ford: ‘Who needs friends?’
Is friendship really all it’s cracked up to be, asks the US novelistAnd if they ever put a bullet through your brain, I’ll complain. It’s friendship, friendship, just a perfect blendship … Cole...
View Article‘Herefordshire is just as lovely as the Dordogne’
For author John Lewis-Stempel, winner of the Wainwright prize for nature writing, the county is heaven on EarthHerefordshire is one of England’s most rural places. Cradled by Worcestershire against the...
View ArticleRichard Wilbur obituary
US poet laureate, translator and Pulitzer prizewinner with the ability to touch unsettling truths beneath the surface in his workIn 1957, when he won the Pulitzer prize for his third book of poetry,...
View ArticleThe Guardian view on populism: belonging not believing | Editorial
When religious and nationalist longings combine, progressives need a powerful counter-narrativeThe regional elections in Bavaria resulted in a crushing defeat for the CSU party, which has ruled the...
View ArticleRoads taken: the Gloucestershire footpaths that were the making of Robert Frost
We follow the trails trodden a century ago by a band of revolutionary poets who fell for this corner of EnglandThe cows clocked us as we started across a neighbouring field, and by the time we reached...
View ArticlePortrait of a poet in his own home | Brief letters
Robert Frost | Randox | Sleep study | Eider ducks | Climate change songsOn the morning of 9/11, my husband and I were the only visitors at the home of Robert Frost, high in the White Mountains in New...
View ArticleAnd did those feet: 10 walks inspired by famous poets
Matching rich verse with great scenery, these strolls follow in the footsteps of some of our greatest wordsmiths, from William Blake to Carol Ann DuffyYou can stride energetically across lonely crags,...
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