Diamond Dogs Rule OK

Diamond Dogs Rule OK

Writing The Hounds and their Half-Hound Master Bowie’s Diamond Dogs was originally meant to be a sprawling stage show – a glam rock dystopia on roller skates. Its heady post-apocalyptic imagery and dramatic shifts in mood and tone certainly give it the feel of...
On ‘Station to Station’

On ‘Station to Station’

On ‘Station to Station’ Station to Station is my favourite David Bowie album, and it seemed the natural starting point when I was asked to write a poem about the Dame. Its immediate successor, Low, is the better, more important record but Station to Station has this...
A Day At Wicken Fen

A Day At Wicken Fen

It was a great privilege to spend a day at Wicken Fen, near Ely, in the company of Professor Nick Davies, who has grown to love this undrained, species-rich Fen after studying it daily for more than 30 years. Nick is an expert on the behaviour of cuckoos and how they...
On ‘Lady Stardust’

On ‘Lady Stardust’

When commissioning pieces for the original Bowieoke event, I decided to give the other poets their pick of Bowie albums to write on, and to choose my own from among those left. It came as a welcome surprise that 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the...
What are they looking for?

What are they looking for?

Shall I let you into a secret? Despite writing poetry seriously since 2010, despite my MA in Creative Writing and despite running a poetry magazine since 2012, I often think I have no idea what I’m doing. Sometimes it’s true. The nagging suspicion that I’m winging it...
Laura Scott goes to Greece

Laura Scott goes to Greece

My Rialto pamphlet won the Michael Marks prize, and part of the prize is that you get to go to Greece for two weeks to be the poet in residence for Harvard University’s Hellenic summer school. I think if someone were to ask me what was the best single thing about this...
The Cab Rank Principle

The Cab Rank Principle

I’ve been thinking about the law over the last couple of weeks. Not that I’m in any trouble I hasten to add – apart from the usual one that I’m sure some of you have also been quizzed on by other members of the family: “Yes this poeting is all well and good, but when...