We are

happy to announce our first speaker for the new year: Christopher Reid. Amongst other things, Reid has worked as a Poetry Editor for Faber & Faber, edited the 'Selected Letters of Ted Hughes', taught Creative Writing at the University of Hull and has been awarded numerous prizes for his poetry, including the Somerset Maugham Award, the Hawthornden Prize and more recently, the 2009 Costa Book Award for his collection 'A Scattering'. But prizes aren't everything, so here's a poem instead:

Late

Late home one night, I found
she was not yet home herself.
So I got into bed and waited
under my blanket mound,
until I heard her come in
and hurry upstairs.
My back was to the door.
Without turning round,
I greeted her, but my voice
made only a hollow, parched-throated
k-, k-, k- sound,
which I could not convert into words
and which, anyway, lacked
the force to carry.
Nonplussed, but not distraught,
I listened to her undress,
then sidle along the far side
of our bed and lift the covers.
Of course, I’d forgotten she’d died.
Adjusting my arm for the usual
cuddle and caress,
I felt mattress and bedboards
welcome her weight
as she rolled and settled towards me,
but, before I caught her,
it was already too late
and she’d wisped clean away.

Reid will be reading on Tuesday 19th October. More details to follow.