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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Bidisha, the chair of judges, isn't a poet and isn't white. None of the judges are related by marriage or other.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Ah, Hatty. Our very own chair of poets.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | Correct. Poetry is written to be read ...by people |
I don't know how many people grasp J.H.Prynne. I am not even sure if any other poets get J.H.Prynne. Does J.H.Prynne get J.H Prynne?
I really hope he comes out and tells the world that it was all done, in a few minutes on the back of a fag packet, as this would make me feel less of a Wally, and more of a Wiley.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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We can extend the poet-as-bad-judge principle to "poets are their own worst interpreters" -- at least if T S Elliott is anything to go by. A N Wilson's rather divine Return to TS Eliotland on BBC4 was spoiled by constantly having the Great Man reading his own poems. And sending this unpoetic creature off to sleep every time. Why did the BBC do this? Because telly people always want to show off their ingenuity in tracking down 'the original' in favour of helping us, the poor paying public.
I've suffered all my life from not being able to appreciate poetry -- and I fully accept that's my fault rather than poetry's. I had a mate who was such an Ezra Pound freak that it sundered our relationship. I just couldn't get it. (Though he did turn me on to Ronald Firbank.) I might have got T S Eliot if they'd have employed a professional spieler.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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All the same we'd better check out East Coker on account of a) the Megalithic stuff in the Second Quartet and b) the local church being St Michael and all the Angels.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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More essential news from the Guardian Review. It's by Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff. First two new phrases for your Keeping Up Dictionary
| To mark the publication of Michelle Obama's new memoir, Becoming, we at gal-dem, an online and print magazine written by women of colour and non-binary people of colour, have created a pop-up bookshop. |
Next, a new entry for your It May Not Be Entirely True But It's Guardian True file
| We have drawn on the rich tradition of black-owned bookshops in the UK... |
And finally something for our always popular "Have You Thought This Through Properly?" feature
| In 2016 fewer than 100 titles were published by non-white British authors. Everyone deserves to have access to books that reflect their experience, and that can only happen in the long term if more women of colour and non-binary people of colour have their works published. |
The first thing to say is that as two hundred thousand books by British authors get published in the average year, this is roughly the same proportion of acceptance my own efforts get from publishers, and I'm a dead, white, European male. But that's not the important point. [True, Mick, but we feel your pain.] The thing about publishers is that most of the time one (and I'm one) hasn't got a clue as to the colour of the author. But OK, it's easy enough to find out. So we'll do an Oscars and make sure next year it's three hundred books. Now irrespective of whether these extra books are worth publishing -- they weren't first time round -- it's going to lead to an Oscar situation. Every time I see a black face staring out at me from the fly leaf I'm going to be saying, "Bet she only got in because she's black."
Now I understand that this is both unworthy and probably untrue but I can't freaking help it. That's the way people are when it comes to deciding whether to read a particular book. You just listen to those itsy-bitsy voices in your head that allow you to choose the twenty books a year you're going to read (or at any rate, buy or borrow) from the two hundred thousand on offer. Nevertheless it certainly will assist black people to read about the black experience. So maybe more power to it. As long as everyone understands there's a price to to be paid.
You wait till I'm a non-binary person and you try not reading one of my books when you see me glaring out at you. You binarist!
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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These screeds ought to be recorded for YouTube!
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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| In 2016 fewer than 100 titles were published by non-white British authors. Everyone deserves to have access to books that reflect their experience, and that can only happen in the long term if more women of colour and non-binary people of colour have their works published. |
I am all in favour of this, providing it's supported by a robust system of British DNA testing. I don't think, for example, the Ruskies could be trusted on Cossack testing. Currently, it's a national disgrace, there are way too many snowflakes pretending to be exotic, and hoovering up all the prizes, scholarships.
I once pretended to be Otis Redding. I was ace at the sitting on my arse at the dock, doing nothing, but struggled vocally. I finally got found out, and arrested when I tried to whistle.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Are we going down the American road?
An NHS trust has been ordered to pay £1m in damages to a former employee after a tribunal found he was unfairly dismissed and faced racial discrimination. Richard Hastings, who was an IT manager with King’s College hospital NHS foundation trust, south London, was accused of assault after a dispute with a contractor and delivery van driver in the hospital’s car park in 2015.
The tribunal found the trust sacked him after an investigation that ignored his allegations that he had been subjected to racist abuse. Its disciplinary process was also said to have consistently painted Hastings as “the aggressorâ€, based on preconceptions of him as a black male, though CCTV footage showed this not to be the case. The white contractors were seen as “the victims†during the process. |
I am sure all this is true -- though I find it difficult to believe that this particular outfit, which I know well, was more racist (which it generally isn't) than incompetent (which it generally is). But even so, a million pounds? OK, if it's Philip Green, but an NHS Trust?
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| Regulars at a local pub in London got a royal surprise when Kate Middleton and her daughter, Princess Charlotte, walked in to use the bathroom. |
I didn't even know they went to the toilet. The mystique keeps getting chipped away.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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This Week's Multiple Choice
Is Meghan Markle the biggest threat to the monarchy since Archbishop Laud?
Yes
No
Who's Meghan Markle?
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Gordon Bennett, just back from shopping. Nobody told me winter had arrived. Global warming? Bring it on. Sorry, Vanuatu, but my chilblains come first. And talking of Katowice, did they arrange bus tours to Nowa Huta, Poland’s answer to not having to pay for crap Soviet steel by making their own crap steel using lignite in the furnaces? Thank God there was no brown coal in Shropshire or we'd all have been toast by 1850.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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A new stat and a new concept from the leader of the farmers' union advocating the government pay more attention to the needs of her members
| 72% of Britain is a farmed environment |
Probably true but I wonder what percentage of that is the responsibility of farmers. Put it another way, can you think of an area of Britain that isn't a farmed environment to some degree or other? I predict the percentage will start going up when we've got used to the idea. It takes away from the fact that farming represents 2% of GNP.
And yes, having a woman 'leading' the NFU i.e. acting as its spokesman, is pure PR.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| The Chinese-made Land Wind is an almost exact copy of the Range Rover for a third of the price. BBC |
Once the Chinese get over their absurd snobbery about Western products I don't see we've got much of a chance. We shall have to look for tariff protection under the aegis of a really powerful trading bloc.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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When theatres were allowed again after Cromwell, in 1663, they had to be licensed. Only two were, Covent Garden and Drury Lane. Until 1834! Was this to keep control or just a government money-making exercise, selling monopolies? Either way, it's little wonder Drury Lane was the tallest building in London.
PS Often called the Golden Age of British Theatre for you socialists.
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