"Poetry is the business of words and silence" says Philip Gross at the start of his reading for Poetry & a Pint. It's a real privilege to listen to this T.S.Eliot Award winning poet in the tiny space of St James Vaults, sharing words from The Water Table (I forgot to bring my copy for signing so Philip graciously autographed my arm) and also, excitingly, from his next collection which will be about his father. Can't wait.
I went with lovely Rose Flint and Wednesday found us in Bath together again for another poetry reading: Helen Jagger Wood brought her Indian King poets from Cornwall to the BRSLI lunchtime readings. In my fiction days I ran novel-writing master-classes for Helen down in Camelford so it was good to meet up again, and to hear her poems. Mostly about nature, they are wonderfully sensuous but with consummate hidden craft.

You can't go wrong with small-town teen coming-of-age movies, I always think, and Submarine had so much critical acclaim I was gagging to see this 'refreshing, urgent, and original' debut movie from Richard Ayoade. It starts with Oliver's death-obsession recalling Harold and Maude but not so funny, continues by recalling Catcher in the Rye but not so deeply layered, and then settles for recalling Gavin and Stacey but more verbose. Much has been made of the film's 'confidence' but it's a fine line between self-confident and self-satisfied. Pleasant enough but unimpressive.

Fatuous footnote of the week: Alan Partridge is following me on Twitter. He facebooked me to tell me. As a huge admirer of Mr Partridge's work I'm thrilled and delighted to see him at the top of my twitter page, looking roguishly avid for my tweets. Maybe I'll write something there one day.
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