A bit of reflected glory to start the year off – the super-prestigious TS Eliot Prize for poetry has just been won by Philip Gross, for his collection, The Water Table. You can read all about it on the Guardian website.
The Eliot Prize was created by the Poetry Book Society in memory of its founder. Worth £15,000, it is one of the very big prizes for English-language poetry collections. Previous winners include Carol Ann Duffy, Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Les Murray and Mark Doty.
Philip came to Glamorgan to join the MPhil staff when I was there. (Hence his kind comments on the blurb for The Summer King.) He took over from Tony Curtis as head of the MPhil at the end of last year. A lovely, lovely man, a fine teacher and a superb poet.
A Dark Feathered Art 