Like the sand and the oyster, it's a creative irritant. In each poem, I'm trying to reveal a truth, so it can't have a fictional beginning.

I have piles of poetry books in the bathroom, on the stairs, everywhere. The only way to write poetry is to read it.

I grew up in a bookless house - my parents didn't read poetry, so if I hadn't had the chance to experience it at school I'd never have experienced it. But I loved English, and I was very lucky in that I had inspirational English teachers, Miss Scriven and Mr. Walker, and they liked us to learn poems by heart, which I found I loved doing.

I like to think that I'm a sort of poet for our times.

Like the sand and the oyster, it's a creative irritant. In each poem, I'm trying to reveal a truth, so it can't have a fictional beginning.

Between 9am and 3pm is when I work most intensely

Having a child takes you back to all those parts of your own childhood that you had hidden away.