In a world without air all you breathe is adventure!

The human longing for story is so powerful, so primitive, that it seems like something not learned, but locked into our genes.

I didn't choose Russia but Russia chose me. I had been fascinated from an early age by the culture, the language, the literature and the history to the place.

When you are young you don't always realise how full of doubts everybody is.

The poets whom I knew then were all men and all seemed dauntingly sure of themselves - although I am sure that really they were as uncertain as I was.

Writing poetry makes you intensely conscious of how words sound, both aloud and inside the head of the reader. You learn the weight of words and how they sound to the ear.

My first collection of poems was published by Bloodaxe Books, which was then a very new imprint.