Home Thoughts, from Abroad Oh, to be in England Now that April's there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning, unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough In England—now! And after April, when May follows, And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!

I had an early holiday, actually - I was house and dog-sitting for friends and picked up two books to put in the suitcase; well, the weather forecast was bleak. Yet again, coincidence hit the spot.

The title of Christopher Arksey’s new pamphlet for Broken Sleep Books gently ironises the elegiac nature of his poems. A backward glance to a life well-lived, Variety Turns extrapolates alternative meanings from the suggestion of a theatrical playbill to describe, instead, the many faces of his subject, his mother, who died in 2016.

I know my faults. I can be greedy. I would rather have no chocolate at all than limit myself to just one square from the bar; give me a good book and I like nothing better than to read at every possible moment, getting acquainted with the characters and immersing myself in the action.

Harvey Lee left school in Manchester armed with a poor school report and few qualifications, with a bleak future and little else but a passion for music. His new book Backstage Pass tells the story of his time in the music industry, before he later became a business leader for such illustrious companies as Virgin and Microsoft.

Chaudhri Sher Mobarik looks at the loch Light shakes out the dishrag sky and scatters the water with sequins. Look, hen! says my father, Loch Lomond! as if it were all his doing, as if he owned it, laird of Lomond, laird of the language.

Like a man drifting in and out consciousness, Tristram Fane Saunders’ grip on poetic theme and direction is fevered, mediated by his own susceptibility to the surreal, or to alternative landscapes that shape what he sees. More intriguing still that he should prosecute his aim in a range of bravura formal approaches whose framework can never contain the arbitrary image-making of his thinking.

The Academy of Ancient Music is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and to mark the occasion, the orchestra commissioned Richard Bratby to write its history. AAM, as it is affectionately known, was the first orchestra to be set up in the UK using period instruments, and Bratby uses first-hand testimony from artists, critics, collaborators, and supporters to chart its development.

Snow We're brought to our senses, awake to the black and whiteness of world. Snow's sensational. It tastes of ice and fire. Hold a handful of cold. Ball it between your palms to throw at the moon. Relish its plushy creak. Shake blossoms from chestnut and beech, gather its laundered linen in your arms. A twig of witch hazel from the ghost-garden burns like myrrh in this room. Listen!

The UK’s biggest crime fiction convention returns for the 16th year in 2024, with Laura Lippman and Denise Mina as its Featured Guests. CrimeFest, sponsored by Specsavers, is hosted from 9 to 12 May 2024 at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel. Up to 150 authors will descend on Bristol appearing in over 50 panels.

December 24th It is almost five. It is Heiligabend. The forecast shows snow cartwheeling over Saarland. The sun goes down on your cul-de-sac, on your parents’ small, well-tended garden. Your yard is swept. Your steps are gritted. Your mother’s broom rests in an apple tree’s elbow. She hurries outdoors at the very last minute to dead-head a rose.

If ever there was a biography that was a touchstone for what is happening in 2023 in the UK arts scene and specifically opera, then Julia Glesner’s informative and enlightening life of Sir Peter Jonas is it. Edward Maltby’s translation from German to English is to be welcomed as it enables us to explore the fascinating life of an impresario who dominated the opera world.