Author: Matthew Paul

Among the many pleasures of watching Hitchcock’s 1940 rather-less-than-faithful but compelling adaptation of Rebecca is the array of acting talent; the Oscar-nominated trio of Olivier, Joan Fontaine and the unforgettable Judith Anderson as Mrs Danvers, with her amazing range of faraway, disturbing looks; and also the supporting cast of British talent: brilliantly caustic George Sanders;… Continue reading On Rebecca and J.A. Baker →

Much to my amazement, one of a few haiku I sent for the Australian Haiku Society’s inaugural John Bird Dreaming Award for Haiku has been placed second. My thanks to the judges, Vanessa Proctor and Michael Dylan Welch, and to Ron Moss for his haiga.

Seven years ago today, at about this time of day, I received a phone call confirming the passing of Martin Lucas, haiku and tanka poet and editor.Here are a few of Martin’s haiku, selected from the first and final (#12) issues of Snapshots haiku magazine, edited, respectively, by John Barlow in 1998 and John and… Continue reading On Martin Lucas again →

It’s nearly three weeks now since Lyn and I moved from Thames Ditton to Rotherham. Since then, it’s been jolly cold, as it seems to have been everywhere in the UK, and full Lockdown in England has been in place until today, when anyone who’s hard(y) and/or desperate enough can go and drink outside (but… Continue reading On moving to Rotherham →

Readings really are like buses - none come along for ages and then, well, you know the rest. So, I was delighted when Katie Griffiths invited me to be part of the launch event for her wonderful forthcoming Nine Arches Press collection, The Attitudes. It’s on Thursday 22 April, at 7.30pm (British Summer Time). Tickets… Continue reading Nine Arches reading →

Following the thoroughly enjoyable part 1 of the Red Door Poets readings last Sunday, the link is now available to get a (free) ticket for part 2, on Sunday 11 April, at 6pm (British Summer Time), which will feature Beatríz Echeverri, Gillie Robic and me, plus our three guest readers.

Readers of this ’ere blog may remember that I am a member of the Red Door Poets, a collective of nine poets who, in normal times, meet fortnightly behind the red door of one of the nine, Mary Mulholland, for poem workshopping and chewing of the poetic fat. In Lockdown, meetings have mutated into weekly… Continue reading Red Door Poets →

Three more of my OPOI reviews have been published on Sphinx, of excellent pamphlets by: Steve Ely, Daniel Fraser and Cliff Yates.

I’ve long admired the Words for the Wild website, not just for the writing it features but also how stylishly it does so. I’m very happy, then, to have a poem of mine, ‘Swallowing the Toad’ (which, before you start sniggering, isn’t a euphemism) from The Evening Entertainment, on there as part of the Gilbert… Continue reading Words for The Wild →

Nowadays, the words ‘great’ and ‘greatest’ are bandied around with egregious abandon, but a strong claim can be made for averring that Edward Burra (1905–1976) was the greatest British painter of the Twentieth Century. Certainly he was, as Jonathan Meades described him in a Radio 4 Great Lives programme, “the greatest watercolourist imaginable”.In a career… Continue reading On Edward Burra →