Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate
Vikram Seth is the global bestselling author of A Suitable Boy and An Equal Music. His first novel is an unrivalled triumph of both imagination and craft: an eloquent, thrilling soap opera set in 1980s San Francisco, featuring a politicised … More details …
North (1975) Seamus Heaney
“North”, published in 1975 is divided into two parts. The first contains poems which are more symbolic in nature, taking themes such as the myth of Hercules and Antaeus, the bog bodies of Northern Europe, the Vikings and other historical … More details …
Virgil’s “Aeneid” (Sarah Ruden verse translation)
In our reading and discussion of the “Aeneid”, we shall be looking at the mythology of the fall of Troy, the themes of fate and destiny, the importance of ‘pietas’ and ‘virtus’ in relation to the character of Aeneas. We … More details …
Six Contemporary English Poets
On this three week course we will look at representative examples of the variety of poetry that is being written in England at present, and where possible listen to recordings of the poets reading their own work. These will include … More details …
Laurie Lee: A Cotswold Countryman
Most of us have heard of Cider with Rosie, the first of Laurie Lee’s autobiographical novels about his early life in the lush beauty of the Gloucestershire countryside. Lee is rightly famous for this engaging work but his passion was … More details …
Fierce Tears: A Day with Dylan Thomas
Original, intuitive and imaginative, Dylan Thomas brought his obsession with words and imagery into all his work: his poetry, stories, plays and radio broadcasts. But he also fostered a scandalous reputation as a hard-living, drunken, doomed poet who compromised his … More details …
Modern Scottish Poetry
In this course we will explore the range of locations and contexts that have inspired the rich tradition of poetry in Scotland. From the islands of Orkney to urban Edinburgh and Glasgow, both male and female poets from very diverse … More details …
Poems for Christmas
Poets have approached the theme of Christmas from so many different perspectives, reflecting a wide variety of beliefs. We will read poems about the Annunciation from the Middle Ages, and the birth of Christ, from poets as diverse as Thomas … More details …
Seamus Heaney: poet of place
This course is fully booked. Please contact us if you would like to be on the waiting list for any cancellations. Throughout his life, Seamus Heaney derived poetic inspiration from various quarters. However, many of his poems are rooted … More details …
‘Answering Back’
Contemporary poets were invited to select a poem from our literary heritage and respond to it in any way they wished. “Answering Back” is the resulting anthology. In this day school, we shall be discussing a selection from the anthology, … More details …
On Extended Wings – Six modern American poets
Over the last hundred years American poets have assimilated a huge range of influences including jazz and blues, the new psychologies, advertising, film, and a variety of landscapes from Boston to the Rockies. And while recognising the importance of the … More details …
Poetry and the Passage of Time
The passage of time is a theme explored by many poets. In this three-week course we’ll read and discuss poems from the Bloodaxe anthology, Being Human (2011), which includes a wide variety of poetry from this and the previous century, … More details …
Modern European Poetry
Since the second World War a number of poets have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. These include the Polish poets, Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska, the Italian poets, Salvatore Quasimodo, and Eugenio Montale. And many European poets have been … More details …
Poetry Matters
In 2002 Neil Astley of Bloodaxe Books published Staying Alive, the first in a series of international poetry anthologies, giving it the subtitle ‘real poems for unreal times’. With 500 poems to choose from, this makes an excellent source for … More details …
The Mature Larkin: The Whitsun Weddings (1964) and High Windows (1974)
This dayschool will focus on the two volumes that cemented Philip Larkin’s reputation as a poet whose work would continue to be read for years to come. Starting with the title poem from The Whitsun Weddings, we shall discuss how … More details …