It could be verse! Poet Laureate Simon Armitage’s uplifting new work about how coronavirus pandemic has changed lives is released to mark National Poetry Day today Poet Laureate Simon Armitage said lockdown sometimes left him lost for words His new work is about how pandemic changed lives and is released today It’s a commission for … Read more
A black poet was shocked to learn that he is the descendant of slaves, slave traders, a prime minister and the first black international footballer. Malik Al Nasir, born in 1966 in Toxeth, Liverpool, noticed he looked similar to a black Victorian footballer and went on a 15 year journey into his family history, uncovering … Read more
He says he felt ‘doomed to perpetual failure’ in his youth, before achieving fame with his best-selling novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. Now Louis de Bernieres has paid a final, heartfelt tribute to the man who made it possible — his father, Piers de Berniere-Smart, who has died peacefully aged 96. ‘I wouldn’t be a writer … Read more
From Simon Armitage’s The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed to Lockdown Parenting Hell and Miriam And Youssef, this week’s top podcasts By Leaf Arbuthnot Published: 22:01 BST, 23 May 2020 | Updated: 22:01 BST, 23 May 2020 The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed Simon Armitage, the nation’s bard, is spending lockdown … Read more
Poet laureate Simon Armitage recalls heroic villagers of Eyam who quarantined themselves in 1665 to make sure no one else would catch their Black Death in his new coronavirus poem Locals in Derbyshire village took selfless measures to minimise disease spread They stayed home and left ‘cleansing’ vinegar-soaked cash in exchange for food Armitage says … Read more