I Would Like People To Come Into

The Language Has Got To Be Fully Alive - I Can't Bear Dull, Flaccid Writing Myself And I Don't See Why Any Reader Should Put Up With It.

My First Collection Of Poems Was Published By Bloodaxe Books, Which Was Then A Very New Imprint.

I Have Learned So Much From Working With Other Poets, Travelling And Reading With Them, Spending Days Discussing Poems In Progress. There Is The Sense That We Are All, As Writers, Part Of Something Which Is More Powerful Than Any Of Us.

I Enjoy Research; In Fact Research Is So Engaging That It Would Be Easy To Go On For Years, And Never Write The Novel At All.

If We Understand The Past, We Are More Likely To Recognise What Is Happening Around Us.