Since the Poets’ Graves tour, a lot of the poems I’ve been working on have been about death. This one is no exception. Like all my Wednesday poems, it’s a work in progress. 3 Ideas For Modern Funerals 1. The crematorium is made up like a courtroom The coffin propped in the dock A judge … Read more

I grew up in a little coastal West Country town you’ve probably heard of, called Portishead. To be fair, as a child, I was quite happy there. It was only when I moved away then came back that I became aware of how crazily right-wing the place is. Our local MP is the Conservative Dr … Read more

So it’s been a week since we finished our tour of poets’ graves and I’m still letting all my thoughts percolate before I start producing new material inspired by it. Next week I’m going to be doing two gigs in London where I talk a bit about the trip, and hopefully perform one or two … Read more

The last grave we visited on our tour of poets’ graves didn’t belong to a poet at all. After paying our respects to William McGonagall in Edinburgh, we went and took our pictures at the monument to Greyfriars Bobby, the dog who supposedly stood vigil at his master’s grave for over a decade. The story … Read more

I’m back from my two week pilgrimage around poets’ graves with Mark Grist and MC Mixy. It feels weird to write that – I guess it really is over! It’ll take me a while to unpack the whole experience, so I can say something less trite than ‘wow… weird’. We kept an intermittent blog of … Read more

I’m still on tour with Mark Grist and MC Mixy, touring poets’ graves. We’ve visited Sylvia Plath, Philip Larkin, Lord Byron and William Shakespeare. We’ve gigged in a school, an office, a cinema and two castles. We’ve met a staffie, a pug, a whippet-collie cross, an Irish wolfhound, a white labrador and an angry newfoundland. … Read more

Hey everyone! Cross-posting this from the Poets’ Graves blog. On Monday we trekked out onto Dartmoor to hunt for Ted Hughes’ memorial stone. Its exact location was kept secret for several years, partly – so the story goes – for fear that Sylvia Plath supporters might deface it, and partly – again, so I’ve read … Read more

So, for the next fortnight, I’m going to be cross-posting pieces here and on the Poets’ Graves Tour blog. You should read the blog itself, as it will have posts and poems not just from me, but from Mark Grist and MC Mixy as well. I posted this piece late last night, after our launch … Read more

Hey there my dear, loyal friends. So if you read this blog you probably know that I’m off on a pilgrimage round dead poets’ graves for the next fortnight. The link there takes you to our tour route, including shows we’re doing along the way. Do tweet or email us if you fancy us making … Read more

In case you don’t know, Mark Grist, MC Mixy and I are setting off on a pilgrimage round the graves of some the UK’s most famous poets. We’re going to be learning about the lives and work of the wordsmiths who came before us, and writing new pieces inspired by them, our experiences on the … Read more

Hey chums. I’m in a funny place right now. Not a bad place, by any means. Certainly a busy place. But not one that lends itself to explicating in an entertaining or inherently satisfying way. When an actor or screenwriter says they’ve ‘had a lot of meetings this month’ it’s basically shorthand for ‘I am … Read more

You must know by now that I am embarking on a pilgrimage round poets’ graves in October, right? With Mark Grist and MC Mixy? And that we’re going to learn about the lives and work of the poets we visit, and write new poems, and ponder death and eternity and the meaning of it all? … Read more

Unless you have some species of rich and meaningful life occupying your waking hours, you can’t have failed to notice that, next month, from Sunday 6th October til (probably) Friday 18th, I am embarking on a pilgrimage around the final resting places of our nation’s most celebrated poets. I’ll be joining Mark Grist and MC … Read more

As you may have seen, on Friday I announced a tour/pilgrimage that I’ll be undertaking (weak pun intended) in October with Mark Grist and MC Mixy. The idea is to visit as many famous poets’ graves as we can, across the UK. We start in Bristol, on Sunday October 6th, and we end sometime after … Read more

Part of me can’t believe I’m announcing this. It’s probably the most foolhardy project I’ve embarked on. By writing this down, I’m committing to it. I have no idea if it will triumph, or dissolve into an embarrassing fiasco. To be honest, it could do both. The thing is, friends – I need your help. … Read more