Event at London Zoo, chaired by Ruth Padel, a contributor to issue 9 of Interlitq, moves D.J. Taylor to reflect on Charles Dickens’s “Ode to an Expiring Frog”

Ruth Padel

Ruth Padel, the UK poet who was a contributor to Issue 9 of Interlitq, has been cited in “Love against money? It’s no contest” (D.J. Taylor, The Independent, 19.05.13): At an event held last Tuesday night at London Zoo, the poet Jo Shapcott could be heard talking about the loris – a small furry animal native to Sri Lanka – about which she has written a poem. The series of six discussions, chaired by Ruth Padel, also includes Mark Haddon on Galapagos tortoises and Andrew O’Hagan on the Malaysian tapir, each accompanied by a conservation scientist and the animal itself.

This led me to wonder what might be the most recherché specimen to which a poet has ever addressed a poem. Obviously there is Burns on mice (‘Wee sleekit, cowrin,’ tim’rous beastie’). The Georgian rhymers had a thing about parrots, although one of their number, Sir John Squire, wrote some affecting verses to a cabbage white butterfly he once saw fluttering along the Strand.

The Beat Poets have their moments, although Ed Sanders’ “Sheep Fuck Poem” is probably not much anthologised. But the last word was probably spoken by Dickens, in the shape of Mrs Leo Hunter’s “Ode to an Expiring Frog” in Pickwick (“Can I unmoved see thee dying/on a log/Expiring frog?”). You can keep your lorises.

D.J. Taylor

Ruth Padel, a contributor to Issue 9 of Interlitq, is preparing a talk about “a ridiculously beautiful purple jewel called the amethyst starling”

Ruth Padel

Writing in “Talks and tigers are a natural attraction” (The Guardian, 03.05.13), Ruth Padel, the UK poet who was a contributor to Issue 9 of Interlitq, reveals that she is preparing a talk at London Zoo about “a ridiculously beautiful purple jewel called the amethyst starling”.

Ruth Padel, a contributor to issue 9 of Interlitq, states that Glyn Maxwell has “grown fully into his art”

Ruth Padel

Reviewing (The Guardian, 20.04.13) Pluto by Glyn Maxwell, Ruth Padel, a contributor to Issue 9 of Interlitq, concludes, “Pluto seems the book Maxwell was born to write. As if, after a quarter-century as dazzling craftsman, he has felt ‘the blue glow’ on him and grown fully into his art.”

Glyn Maxwell

“She wore dark glasses in the only photo I could access yet” … ‘Homeward Orpheus’ by Glyn Maxwell. Illustration: Clifford Harper/agraphia.co.uk

 

Back in London after Crete, Ruth Padel, a contributor to Issue 9 of Interlitq, prepares for reading to support peace in Colombia

Ruth Padel

Returning to London after stay in Crete, Ruth Padel, a contributor to Issue 9 of Interlitq, looks ahead to Exiled Writers Ink event in May (date and venue to be confirmed) to support  peace in Colombia.

Jill Dawson, Advisory Consultant for Interlitq, back in the UK after intense writing stint in the Azores

Jill Dawson

Dr. Jill Dawson, Advisory Consultant for Interlitq, and a contributor to Issue 3 of Interlitq, has arrived back in the UK after an intense writing stint, working on her eighth novel, The Tell-Tale Heart.