Julia Copus at Woodstock

It was the second Woodstock Poetry festival in Oxfordshire this weekend. This is an up and coming festival and I didn’t know about it last year. So with the assistance of Cassandra the satnav I and a friend set off on Saturday to hear Alice Oswald recite Memorial in the entirely appropriate setting of the…

Continue reading

His last letter

On 31st October 1918 Wilfred Owen was safe behind the lines and writing home to his mother about the place in which he and his men were staying. “Dearest Mother, I will call the place from which I’m now writing “The Smoky Cellar of the Forester’s House”. I write on the first sheet of the…

Continue reading

Let me tell you a story…

One of the lovely things that has happened since Convoy was published is that people keep bringing me stories about their own family history, often from the second world war but not always. There was the friend, whose grandmother had walked with Gandhi. But mostly they are stories from the war; and recently they have…

Continue reading

Round-up

It feels as if I’ve been neglecting this blog, mostly in favour of writing, but a report on Convoy’s progress is well over-due. In his blog this morning Mark Doty describes his newest book, Deep Lane, thus  – The book has the force of selfhood. So it is with Convoy which does seem to be…

Continue reading

A summer with Wilfred Owen

I am due to go back to the Somme this autumn with a group of writers, the tip being organised by Vanessa Gebbie and led by our guide Jeremy Banning. So I am spending the summer engaging with Wilfred Owen’s poetry. A poet whose work I have not studied since I was at school as…

Continue reading

Convoy – the tour continues

With thanks to Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn and Rebecca Gethin who have been asking me thoughtful and thought-provoking questions about how the book came together and featuring Convoy on their blogs. Lindsay’s blog Rebecca Gethin Featured-writers

Continue reading

Convoy – the tour

After the launch on Monday there appears to be no stopping Convoy now. It has taken itself off on a global tour with stops at the following blogs so far;  Ruth Downie  Judi Moore’s Is Death Really Necessary  Vanessa Gebbie If you would like it to pay a visit to your blog then do get…

Continue reading