Jeremy Wikeley

Many words of the year are in fact more than one word

All of them, recently. Boo!

Thank you!

I'll be on a ship in Canary Wharf reading some poems - not all by me, thankfully - for The Little Review launch party tomorrow from 1300hrs. Why not come along?

Ticket includes a (little) magazine.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/guest-even...

Poetry Blog Digest 2025, Week 45 A personal selection of posts from the Poetry Blogging Network and beyond.

This week in the poetry blogs w/ @suefinch.bsky.social @velveteenrabbi.bsky.social @linarvitvideopoet.bsky.social @mcrucefix.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @jwikeley.bsky.social @kimmoorepoet.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social @shotscarecrow.bsky.social 1/4
www.vianegativa.us/2025/11/poet...

And very much looking forward to it too!

Thanks Bill. What a story! I hope I got them right, then. I don't suppose you kept the letter?

Thank you! I've already fired the proofreader.

A friend and I wrote to Larkin from 1960s New Zealand, quite baffled by the poem. He wrote back, explaining the various references very straightforwardly, and entirely without condescension. Pretty impressive.

Solemn-sinister wreath-rubbish Philip Larkin and the politics of forgetting

“It’s both funny and serious. The speaker’s a shit. That’s always serious.” Philip Larkin joins the culture wars. jwikeley.substack.com/p/solemn-sin...

Graeme Richardson — Bad Lilies Three poems by Graeme Richardson

A taste of my forthcoming book, thanks to @badlilies.bsky.social - www.badlilies.uk/graeme-richa...

If it wasn't me, I agree all the same!

Someone - I think it was @jwikeley.bsky.social – pointed out a while ago how different post-war English poetry might look if Douglas had lived.

You did, but I will take the second! Currently getting a lot (a lot) of mileage out of PEEPO! And, of course, dinosaurs.

The end of childhood reading An old piece, and some new thoughts

New post: why children's books are the most important genre, plus another run out for my bit on @questingvole.bsky.social's The Haunted Wood (now out in paperback): jwikeley.substack.com/p/the-end-of...

Still Life with Pottery and Two Bottles - November 1884
https://botfrens.com/collections/46/contents/3109183

Walking with Keats To Autumn as a democratic landscape

What, if anything, does To Autumn have to say about the history of rural labour? I went walking with Keats...
jwikeley.substack.com/p/walking-wi...

Poetry Blog Digest 2025, Week 40 A personal selection of posts from the Poetry Blogging Network and beyond.

Interesting times as always this week in the poetry blogs with @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @wendypratt.bsky.social @jwikeley.bsky.social @kimmoorepoet.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social @edmundprestwich.bsky.social @salenagodden.bsky.social 1/3
www.vianegativa.us/2025/10/poet...

"Is it dusk yet?" ask the Minervan owls impatiently, itching to spread their wings.

Photo of Nouvelle-Aquitaine clock tower by Bianco Da Vinci

NB if you don't mind following me back, I will DM with another 'coincidence' that's been bugging me (different poet).

Remarkable! It is just possible that it's the obvious (far too obvious) image. But that is probably too charitable.

The Middle-Distance Poem: An Elegy What was it? Where did it go?

What is, or was, the middle-distance poem? Where did it go? And why are there so many trains involved? substack.com/home/post/p-...

Winchester Poetry Festival 2025 - Friday Details and booking for events taking place on the Friday of Winchester Poetry Festival 2025

Poetry friends, Hampshire friends, everyone further afield!

WPF is remixing the canon ft. brilliant poets like Fiona Benson, Richard Scott & @naush.bsky.social and activities for all.

10–12 Oct plus more before

I’ll be helping out, come say hello 💫

🔗 www.winchesterpoetryfestival.org/wpf25friday

New from me in this week's Spectator. It's about decluttering.

Thanks Sameer!

“Once #AnimalFarm made him famous, & solvent, for the first time in his life, #Orwell immediately moved to the Hebrides. His diaries there are filled with rapt but unsentimental observations of animals, often ending with him killing and eating them.”

engelsbergideas.com/notebook/ani...

Unrecognisable

Thank you, Jeff!

Animal Farm, Orwell's true masterpiece Animal Farm works at a deeper level than politics. It is an allegory about human nature, and George Orwell's greatest work.

This 80th anniversary of Animal Farm essay by @jwikeley.bsky.social is excellent, makes a good case of it being Orwell's masterpiece engelsbergideas.com/notebook/ani... (pairs well w/an essay of mine on the book's relevance for thinking about China & Hong Kong www.asiancha.com/wp/article/j... )

Animal Farm, Orwell's true masterpiece Animal Farm works at a deeper level than politics. It is an allegory about human nature, and George Orwell's greatest work.

"The book in which George Orwell is most himself."

I'm over at @engelsbergideas.bsky.social today, making the case for a much-neglected novella called... Animal Farm.

engelsbergideas.com/notebook/ani...