Last weekend I was in Hull.  I don’t really know what I expected, as in the past I’d only driven though to the ferry terminal.  But what a pleasant surprise – a vibrant old town and museum quarter; ‘The Deep’ a designer aquarium that looks proudly out to sea like a ship’s prow; beautiful villages and coast only half an hour’s drive away and, of course, the iconic Humber Bridge.  It may not be the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world any more, but it’s still pretty impressive!

But I should imagine that Hull was a far bleaker place to live when Philip Larkin was University Librarian there.  During the war Hull suffered the worst bombing raids outside London with 95% of its houses either damaged or destroyed.

Larkin’s poems – often bleak and disconcerting, though always technically brilliant – appeal to me.  And I’m obviously not alone – in 2008 The Times named him as Britain’s greatest post-war poet.  Many people are only familiar with ‘This be the verse’  – or a parody of it! But one of my favourites is currently Poem of the Month on the Larkin Society website.  Try it and see what you think.

And if you fancy yourself as the next Larkin (though perhaps with a slightly less dysfunction love life) why not try The Writers Bureau Art of Writing Poetry Course.  If you don’t know the difference between a Sestina and a Sonnet, a Rubai and a Rondel and you think iambic pentameters are something you feed to the cat, perhaps it’s just what you need.  Or, if such technicalities aren’t for you, there’s plenty of useful information on crafting free verse, presenting your poetry to an audience and polishing your work to competition standard.

At least we get a couple of extra days over the weekend.  If the weather warms up there’s lots of gardening on the cards for me.  But whatever you do, enjoy your Easter break!

Thanks to Simon for last month’s entertaining blog and I hope you’re all assiduously checking your toilet bowl before sitting down!  I remember having a drink outside a rather seedy bar on the outskirts of Moscow.  There were huge (well, rather large) rats scurrying around the back door and nobody at the other tables seemed to bat an eyelid.  I spent the next few days feeling queasy and checking for buboes and other symptoms of the Black Death at regular intervals.

This week I’ve been doing the final proofread of our updated ‘Profit from Your Photography’ module that we’ll be introducing to our Journalism and Creative Writing courses over the next couple of months.  It’s been written for us by Tracy Hallett, who’s not only a talented photographer but has a knack of explaining clearly and simply how to get the results you want.

Anyone seriously considering writing should obtain a copy of the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook.  But you can now have access to a lot of the useful information contained in WAYB at their website. Obviously, they don’t give away everything for nothing!  You do have to register, but it’s free and you even get a reduction on the price of the book.

The site it well worth a visit and they currently have details of their 2010 competition with a £500 prize and a much-coveted place on an Arvon Foundation residential writing course.

Talking of which, here at Writers Bureau we’re now accepting entries for our 2010 competition.  There are two categories – poems and short stories.  Prize money totals £4000 with a rather desirable first prize of £1000 in each section.  So, why not give it a go?  You’ve got till 30^th June to pen and polish your winning entry!

So, what do you think of the ‘school photo’?  You’ll have to excuse the boots and jeans – we don’t normally look so scruffy but we were still sliding around the icy pavements of Manchester to get to work.  Still, it was good to look back and think how we’ve changed over the past 21 years and how many writers we’ve helped into print.

If you’re interested in seeing what offers and competitions we’ve got on throughout the year as part of the celebrations, visit our website and sign up.  You don’t need to be a student to join in – our celebration is open to all!  And incidentally, don’t forget that our January competition – write a poem in 21 words – will close on 31 January, so there’s still time to enter.

Are you a Roddy Doyle fan?  (The Commitments, The Van, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha…)  I can’t say I was particularly keen until I picked up Paula Spencer recently … and couldn’t put it down until I’d read it from cover to cover.  It’s the sequel to The Woman Who Walked into Doors and continues the story of battered wife Paula, gamely battling her alcoholism and trying to re-build links to her four children.  I know it doesn’t sound like a bundle of laughs but there is dark humour there – and an astonishing insight into the character.  I was left feeling amazed that a male writer could have such an accurate insight into a woman’s mind.  If you don’t mind a bit of squalor and plenty of bad language it’s certainly worth reading.  Let me know what you think!

Finally, I’m having a break next week.  I’m handing over to one of our tutors, Simon Whaley, so that you get a bit of variety. See you in a fortnight!

I’m not a shopaholic – I don’t have a love affair with handbags and I’m not the Imelda Marcos of shoes.  But food is another matter.  Upmarket food halls are my idea of heaven on earth and although I probably shouldn’t admit this, I actually enjoy my weekly trip to the local supermarket.

Not being the faithful type, I go wherever the mood takes me but Morrisons caught my attention this week.  Apparently, they’ve appointed three “Food Laureates”!  Yes, you can visit their website and see rhyming recipes written by poets Ian McMillan, John Mole and Peter Sansom. The standard of verse won’t put Carol Ann Duffy on her mettle but it’s a quirky idea set up in conjunction with the Poetry Society.  I can’t really imagine myself reciting an ode at the same time as making a chicken tikka masala (that’s taking multi-tasking too far) but anything that gets people thinking more about either poetry or cooking can’t be a completely bad idea!

Next – your views on Oxfam Bookshops.  There has been a lot of discussion recently about whether they are just another group undermining small independents and traditional second-hand booksellers.  It’s possibly true but the choice is usually excellent, good pricing makes the books accessible to everyone and the money they raise for a worthy cause is not to be sniffed at.  And if they don’t take their share of the market… then the big supermarkets certainly will.

As you’ve probably guessed, I’m all in favour – but what do you think?

I was listening to a programme on radio recently about the demise of nursery rhymes. They interviewed a number of people who said they never sang them to their children, because they felt they were old-fashioned and irrelevant.

Usually, I’m all for keeping our literary heritage intact but when you actually start thinking about nursery rhymes they are a bit odd – if not downright scary or salacious.

You’ve got ‘Georgie Porgie’, referring to the notorious libertine George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham and lover of James I. It’s no wonder the girls cried when he kissed them! ‘Humpty Dumpty’ – a huge Royalist cannon destroyed by Parliamentarian forces in the Civil War. ‘The Grand Old Duke of York’ commemorating the War of the Roses – probably one of the most bloody episodes in English history. Even ‘Pop Goes the Weasel’ apparently describes pawning the coat off your back to survive in 18th century London (pop = to pawn; weasel and stoat = coat in Cockney rhyming slang).

And that’s without the arachnophobia (Little Miss Muffet) and beheading with a cleaver (Oranges and Lemons). I could go on…

The whole subject is fascinating and there’s more information at www.rhymes.org.uk if you’re interested. It seems to me that nursery rhymes are more suitable as the basis for a series of history lessons (or articles?) to than as light entertainment for toddlers.

So if you do want to entertain your children why not write your own verses? You might not be another T S Eliot (and I’m talking about Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats here, not The Waste Land) or an Edward Lear. But I can promise you’ll be able to turn out a first class limerick before you’ve finished. And what more could anyone ask?

So for now…