Graeme Richardson
@ravoon.bsky.social
Poetry Critic for the Sunday Times. Anglican Priest. Poetry Collection, "Dirt Rich", out from Carcanet in January 2026. TLS contributor since 2010. All views very much my own.
"if you are ever going to improve you must keep biting off more than maybe you can chew; otherwise, the bites get smaller and smaller and eventually all you have is the taste of your own saliva" (Updike - aged 28 - in a letter to the Rector of his local church)
December 26, 2025 at 8:04 PM
"if you are ever going to improve you must keep biting off more than maybe you can chew; otherwise, the bites get smaller and smaller and eventually all you have is the taste of your own saliva" (Updike - aged 28 - in a letter to the Rector of his local church)
...
December 24, 2025 at 4:49 PM
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Reposted by Graeme Richardson
This time of year.
December 20, 2025 at 7:28 PM
This time of year.
THE HAPPIEST CHRISTMAS DOG IN THE WORLD!
December 20, 2025 at 7:12 PM
THE HAPPIEST CHRISTMAS DOG IN THE WORLD!
Reposted by Graeme Richardson
Nobody in The Moral Maze gets eaten by the Moral Minotaur, which is a fundamental flaw in the programme.
December 15, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Nobody in The Moral Maze gets eaten by the Moral Minotaur, which is a fundamental flaw in the programme.
Great tribute. JC's approach to reviewing is an approach I share, and one which poetry needs. If your review only cements a friendship, or solicits a good review in return, or is only written for "the community", it's not doing its job.
December 15, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Great tribute. JC's approach to reviewing is an approach I share, and one which poetry needs. If your review only cements a friendship, or solicits a good review in return, or is only written for "the community", it's not doing its job.
Reposted by Graeme Richardson
As we move into “foreigners are cancelling Christmas in the name of political correctness” season it’s worth remembering that Christmas was indeed once banned in England. By Christians. And the man who enforced the ban has a statue in his honour outside the Houses of Parliament.
December 14, 2025 at 2:37 PM
As we move into “foreigners are cancelling Christmas in the name of political correctness” season it’s worth remembering that Christmas was indeed once banned in England. By Christians. And the man who enforced the ban has a statue in his honour outside the Houses of Parliament.
Raban on Carey: "Carey brings to academe all the virtues of Grub Street: cleverness, wit, concision, impertinence, and an endearing readiness to sacrifice messy accuracy for a memorable and slashing phrase. He is the hatchet man’s hatchet man.’"
December 12, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Raban on Carey: "Carey brings to academe all the virtues of Grub Street: cleverness, wit, concision, impertinence, and an endearing readiness to sacrifice messy accuracy for a memorable and slashing phrase. He is the hatchet man’s hatchet man.’"
John Carey RIP. Everyone should read his books on Dickens and Donne and the Faber Book of Reportage. Vary rarely a dull review...
John Carey obituary: literary critic
Witty, eclectic and sometimes scathing scholar and reviewer who held sacred cows in little respect dies aged 91
www.thetimes.com
December 12, 2025 at 5:22 PM
John Carey RIP. Everyone should read his books on Dickens and Donne and the Faber Book of Reportage. Vary rarely a dull review...
Reposted by Graeme Richardson
Also in 2026, my cross-channel Modernisms book. Starts with Mallarmé and Yeats, finishes with Derek Mahon's translations , by way of TE Hulme, Lynette Roberts, TS Eliot and the NRf , Rosemary Tonks, Odilon Périer, the birth of avant-garde theatre and other things.
December 12, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Also in 2026, my cross-channel Modernisms book. Starts with Mallarmé and Yeats, finishes with Derek Mahon's translations , by way of TE Hulme, Lynette Roberts, TS Eliot and the NRf , Rosemary Tonks, Odilon Périer, the birth of avant-garde theatre and other things.
Reposted by Graeme Richardson
Matthew Paul reviews 'Summers Are Other' by Andrew Neilson (Rack Press, 2025)
open.substack.com/pub/thefrida...
open.substack.com/pub/thefrida...
Matthew Paul reviews 'Summers Are Other' by Andrew Neilson (Rack Press, 2025)
The Friday Poem on 12th December 2025
open.substack.com
December 12, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Matthew Paul reviews 'Summers Are Other' by Andrew Neilson (Rack Press, 2025)
open.substack.com/pub/thefrida...
open.substack.com/pub/thefrida...
Bit rough on Armers this
December 5, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Bit rough on Armers this
Reposted by Graeme Richardson
Reposted by Graeme Richardson
I have a new poem, about ancient history, in the winter edition of @thelondonmagazine.bsky.social. Very pleased I am about it too. You can get a copy and read some other pieces online here: thelondonmagazine.org/product/curr...
December 3, 2025 at 7:10 AM
I have a new poem, about ancient history, in the winter edition of @thelondonmagazine.bsky.social. Very pleased I am about it too. You can get a copy and read some other pieces online here: thelondonmagazine.org/product/curr...
State funeral flattering, obv. But still a bit of a shock.
Graeme Richardson will receive a State funeral and his business associates will arrange a special impromptu cremation
December 2, 2025 at 5:30 PM
State funeral flattering, obv. But still a bit of a shock.
Would love this sort of headline to say "read"
November 29, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Would love this sort of headline to say "read"
Reposted by Graeme Richardson
A joy to see After Party is one of The Times six poetry collections of the year!
November 28, 2025 at 2:11 PM
A joy to see After Party is one of The Times six poetry collections of the year!
Reposted by Graeme Richardson
This month, we are publishing A Letter to the Dead by Lynette Roberts, edited by Charles Mundye and Patrick McGuinness!👗
www.carcanet.co.uk/978180017505...
www.carcanet.co.uk/978180017505...
November 26, 2025 at 11:21 AM
This month, we are publishing A Letter to the Dead by Lynette Roberts, edited by Charles Mundye and Patrick McGuinness!👗
www.carcanet.co.uk/978180017505...
www.carcanet.co.uk/978180017505...
In the Times today offering commentary in the Love Song of RFK Jr:
November 25, 2025 at 10:07 AM
In the Times today offering commentary in the Love Song of RFK Jr:
Reposted by Graeme Richardson
A lot of people should be ashamed, having behaved disgracefully.
Congratulations, @poetsarahdoyle.bsky.social. This shows immense character:
www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...
I also wrote about this, for PNR:
www.pnreview.co.uk/archive/rema...
But read Sarah's if you only have time for one.
Congratulations, @poetsarahdoyle.bsky.social. This shows immense character:
www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...
I also wrote about this, for PNR:
www.pnreview.co.uk/archive/rema...
But read Sarah's if you only have time for one.
I was the other poet in the Len Pennie row: here’s my story
Sarah Doyle’s poem Laika won high praise but when she queried similarities to it with the poem Good Girl she was caught up in a storm of accusation, denial and online vitriol
www.thetimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:42 AM
A lot of people should be ashamed, having behaved disgracefully.
Congratulations, @poetsarahdoyle.bsky.social. This shows immense character:
www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...
I also wrote about this, for PNR:
www.pnreview.co.uk/archive/rema...
But read Sarah's if you only have time for one.
Congratulations, @poetsarahdoyle.bsky.social. This shows immense character:
www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...
I also wrote about this, for PNR:
www.pnreview.co.uk/archive/rema...
But read Sarah's if you only have time for one.
Reposted by Graeme Richardson
Remember in Working Girl where the well-connected Sigourney Weaver character presents the outsider Melanie Griffith's idea as her own? But Griffith can explain how she arrived at it, and Weaver can't. Shame on Canongate and on her famous defender if still unmoved.
www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...
www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...
I was the other poet in the Len Pennie row: here’s my story
Sarah Doyle’s poem Laika won high praise but when she queried similarities to it with the poem Good Girl she was caught up in a storm of accusation, denial and online vitriol
www.thetimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Remember in Working Girl where the well-connected Sigourney Weaver character presents the outsider Melanie Griffith's idea as her own? But Griffith can explain how she arrived at it, and Weaver can't. Shame on Canongate and on her famous defender if still unmoved.
www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...
www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...
Tom Paulin's 1986 LRB piece on Yeats' letters is a glass of champagne - both dry and sparkling. Look at these 3 sentences! "The impulse dissolved in helpless love..." What a writer he was.
November 21, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Tom Paulin's 1986 LRB piece on Yeats' letters is a glass of champagne - both dry and sparkling. Look at these 3 sentences! "The impulse dissolved in helpless love..." What a writer he was.
Reposted by Graeme Richardson
I'll be on a ship in Canary Wharf reading some poems - not all by me, thankfully - for The Little Review launch party tomorrow from 1300hrs. Why not come along?
Ticket includes a (little) magazine.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/guest-even...
Ticket includes a (little) magazine.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/guest-even...
Guest Event: The Little Review Issue 2 Launch Party
A new pocket magazine for anyone interested in poetry.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 2:28 PM
I'll be on a ship in Canary Wharf reading some poems - not all by me, thankfully - for The Little Review launch party tomorrow from 1300hrs. Why not come along?
Ticket includes a (little) magazine.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/guest-even...
Ticket includes a (little) magazine.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/guest-even...
if equal emailing cannot be / let the more bugging one be me
November 19, 2025 at 9:48 AM
if equal emailing cannot be / let the more bugging one be me
This is the illustration accompanying Robert Pinsky's review of Seamus Heaney's Collected Poems in the New York Times... But who the fuck is it supposed to be?
November 17, 2025 at 8:22 PM
This is the illustration accompanying Robert Pinsky's review of Seamus Heaney's Collected Poems in the New York Times... But who the fuck is it supposed to be?