Robert Crawford and Peter Sansom read at the Centre
Poets Robert Crawford and Peter Sansom took part in another stimulating Literature Live event on 12 November (2007), chaired by the Centre's current poet in residence Neil Rollinson.
Sometime University of Manchester lecturer and founder of the Poetry Business Peter Sansom took the stage first, for an amusing and entertaining reading. Beginning with a selection from his new book for children The Ice Cream Carpet, the audience was treated to a poem printed in Dragonese, musings on The Settee in Autumn and a poem about the glamorous Kent-born English teacher who inspired Peter as a child in Sheffield.
Other selections included On the Road, which considers the pros and cons of becoming a lorry driver, the reflection on family life Sick Bomb and an Inventory of Inventions (including the inflatable dart board and see-through cat).
Robert Crawford continued the humorous tone with Alba Einstein, about the bandwagon-jumping, cash-ins and swell of national pride which followed the (fictional) news of the physicist's Glasgow birth. His war poem Chaps, and Bereavement, written after his father's death, introduced a more sombre mood, whilst the reading of an erotic poem in Scots allowed the poet "to say anything he wanted!"
Professor Crawford treated the audience to some new poems before both speakers participated in a Q&A session with the audience of students, staff and members of the public.
For information on our forthcoming Literature Live events, please click here.