Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Late and early
Back from reading with Hugo Williams at The Bicycle Shop in Norwich. Lovely occasion. So packed out some people couldn't get in. Hugo's poetry just sounds better and better to me as time goes by. The perfect pitch of that voice and the tension between self and story combine the funny and the tragic. Hugo is one of the few working Muse poets, as Graves would have recognised. All of life is a kind of Belle Dame Sans Merci, a Belle Dame first spotted in Health and Efficiency. The knight-at-arms loiters along, lopes and skips a bit, wearing his haggardness and woe-begoneness with laughter, depression and good grace.
Early morning to Gort.
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4 comments:
Didn't get to this reading with Hugo Williams at The Bicycle Shop. Thanks for sharing this excellent descriptive piece. Great post.
Won't be able to make it to Gort after all. Best of luck with it.
Absolutely agree about Hugo Williams. I've always loved his work (ever since my old friend Anthony introduced me to it), and his Freelance column is superb.
Really sorry I couldn't make it. Heard good things.
Hugo Williams gave me a lift home once after a book signing in Peterborough, where I was the bookseller, and his brother Simon was also reading. Astonishingly filthy Mini and an unexpected kind gesture which I've never forgotten.
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