A fairly full Saturday at the festival. We began with a morning reading by Harry Clifton
from his Secular Eden: Paris Notebooks – it was a set which included several lovely food poems and a gentle and intelligent humour; Imtiaz Dharker followed with performance-oriented work of which I most enjoyed her Bombay tiffin-carriers poem; and Elaine Feinstein who read from works including Talking to the Dead. She also managed to squeeze in one of her Marina Tsvetaeva translations.
After a quick sandwich in town, we hastened back to the hall to hear New Blood
which offered up three talented young poets: the confident and entertaining Caroline Bird; Jack Underwood and Luke Kennard. All young, all talented, what can you say but watch for more from them?
After a bit of workshopping ourselves, we had a good if slightly hasty supper at the Pelican (duck confit with red cabbage and parsnip mash was great)
and then back to Jubilee Hall,
packed to the rafters for an evening reading which commenced with my personal favourite, John Glenday
reading from his excellent new collection, Grain. We heard also from Dorianne Laux and Bernard Kops, and then repaired to the Cross Keys for a nightcap.
