Roger McGough, Brian Patten
The great entertainers celebrate the ruby anniversary of the Mersey Sound anthology of Liverpool poets.
John Haynes
The Costa Poetry Award-winner reads from his book-length poem in iambic pentameter, set in Patience’s Parlour, a small, mud-walled bar in northern Nigeria in 1993, and he talks to Owen Sheers.
Derek Walcott
A reading and conversation with the St Lucian poet, teacher and Nobel Laureate, whose Odyssey version Omeros is hailed as one of the greatest poems of the 20th century. Chaired by William Sieghart.
Dannie Abse, Gwyneth Lewis
The writer discusses his latest collection of poetry Running Late and his memoir The Presence. After his wife Joan died in a car accident in June 2005, he began to write a diary which is both a record of present grief, and a portrait of a marriage which lasted more than fifty years.
Arnand Tucker, David Nicholls, Blake Morrison
The Director Tucker, introduces clips from his forthcoming film and discusses the adaptation with the screenwriter and the poet/journalist on whose memoir the movie is based.
David Hart, Gavin Selerie, Glenn Storhaug
A multi-media session with film, poetry readings and conversation, celebrating the design and art of the exquisitely produced Five Seasons Press publications.
Blake Morrison, Claire Armitstead
The poet and memoirist discusses his big state-of-the-nation first novel South of the River with the Literary Editor of The Guardian.
Gillian Clarke
We celebrate the 70th birthday of the great poet and teacher, whose collections include Selected Poems, The King of Britain’s Daughter and Making the Beds for the Dead.
Josephine Hart
The cast list of readers for the Great War Poets anthology is Dame Eileen Atkins, Simon Callow, and Dan Stevens star of The Line of Beauty.
Jo Thatchell, Nabeel Yasin
The Baghdad poet was denounced as an enemy of the state and fled Iraq in 1980. Tatchell’s book tells his story, and that of the family that he left behind.
Sally Emerson, Antonia Quirke
Emerson introduces her enchanting poetry anthology ‘for lovers, weddings and ever after’, Be Mine. Quirke talks about her movie memoir Madame Depardieu and the Beautiful Strangers.
Chaired by Paul Blezard.
Wole Soyinka, Alastair Niven
The Nigerian Nobel Laureate, ferocious and heroic champion of freedom of speech, discusses his plays, novels and poetry with the Director of Cumberland Lodge.
Wole Soyinka, Nik Gowing
The Nigerian Nobel Laureate talks about freedom of expression, the need to articulate truths and the power of literature.
Lisa Jardine
The biographer and broadcaster will argue that in every age poetry has the capacity to take us beyond our intellectual limitations in our grasp of our relationship to our history. She will take as her example Adrienne Rich's Diving into the Wreck and suggest that Rich's exploration of history and gender still has the power to make us think deeply.
Seamus Heaney
The poet reads and discusses his new collection District and Circle.
The Poetry Gala
Margaret Atwood, Tishani Doshi, James Fenton, John Fuller, Seamus Heaney, Don Paterson, Owen Sheers, Hugo Williams, hosted by Wales’ Poet Laureate Gwyneth Lewis.
Chaired by Paul Blezard
Germaine Greer
In her annual poetry masterclass, Greer explores the idea that ‘Literature is a masculinist invention; poetry in particular is a spectacular form of male display. Women have to adapt a language which objectifies them absolutely to become the speakers, the verbal aggressors.’
Margaret Atwood
The Canadian poet gives us her inversion of Homer’s Odyssey, retold by Penelope and the twelve handmaids Odysseus slaughtered on his return from Troy, Dido and 20 years away from his palace.