Review of The Green Month in the FT: "Matthew Francis's lively versions of medieval poet Dafydd ap Gwilym pay skilful tribute to the randiest of bards... even in church he's ogling girls. 'If I could only get one of them / out of this echoing stone / into soft forest!' Alas, they don't succumb."

One week to go before the launch of The Green Month. #poetry #Aberystwyth

An old poem of mine that has been having a bit of a moment on Facebook.

My new book, The Green Month, will be launched at Waterstones, Aberystwyth, on Thurs 23 October at 7pm. Matthew Jarvis and Dafydd Johnston will be joining me to talk about the great Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, and I'll be reading from my adaptations of his work. www.waterstones.com/events/matth...

I'm tired of the film cliche whereby characters greet each other by just saying a name. It's a principle of writing dialogue that you should leave out empty formulae like "Hallo", "How are you?" but we need to know the names, so "Hi Joan, how are you?" becomes "Joan." But it sounds so artificial.

Glut.

My contribution to next year's @faberbooks.bsky.social Poetry Diary, from my forthcoming collection The Green Month.

Shooting Star Magnesium streak running from nowhere to nowhere spat out of a corner of the night sky to end in a mute fizzle – a shy firework, scuttling across the dark when no one’s looking.

Today I lost patience with Word's tortuous logic and googled "how do I get pictures to go where I want them?" The answer was bizarre, but it worked: "Select the Behind Text option from Layout". So that's solved, even if I have no idea why.

Just back from a wonderful cruise up the Norwegian coast.

New novel by my former student Stefano Teatini, his first in English.

The cover of my forthcoming #poetry collection. I am delighted with it. Brilliant work by the @faberbooks.bsky.social designers.

Someone on the radio today referred to President Pump. I'd been thinking it's about time we declared a moratorium on that man's name, and his photograph, too. If in future all White House decisions were publicly ascribed to President Musk, that might have the bonus of causing a sacking.

My shortest poem: EMPIRE It is remote here. Send marmalade.

From a forged New Testament text: Jesus tell his disciples about the place where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 'But, Rabbi,' one asks, 'what will happen to those who have no teeth?' 'O ye of little faith,' Jesus replies, 'for those who have no teeth, teeth will be provided.'

Just written a stanza in which I rhymed "orange" twice! Had to tell someone. #poetry

Lovely review of my novel Nocturne with Gaslamps on the Historical Novel Society's website: "a Victorian theatrical melodrama on the page".

Crazy phrase from a P.G. #Wodehouse novel: "You start the day with the fairest prospects, and before nightfall everything is as rocky and ding-basted as stig tossed full of doodlegammon.” Borrowed from a baseball report, as explained in this delightful article: www.madameulalie.org/annots/pgwbo...

#AI - the systems will fail, and there won't be a backup when they do. The fingerprint and facial recognitions on my phone have never worked. I waited months to bypass the computer and reach a human when getting compensation for my delayed train. And I can't authenticate my Barclaycard on Amazon

I can see how #AI might improve productivity. The AIs can hold strategy meetings with each other and give each other 97-point action plans, while the humans get on with the work.

I once told a class that if you have one solid rhyming word and one slightly dubious one, put the dubious one first so that it looks as if you wanted it all along and then found the perfect rhyme for it. I caught one of my students giving me a look that said, you have no shame, have you?

I sat down to write a new novel this morning. Then a quick preliminary search revealed that someone had already written it. Back to my endless epic poem.

I've got into a fierce debate on Facebook about the correct pronunciation of "quietus". Most dictionaries say "kwy-ee-tus", which has come as a shock to those who say "kwy-ay-tus". Hamlet will never be the same again!

I learn from Facebook that the notion is going round that "Merry Christmas" is an Americanism and British people must say "Happy Christmas". This is nonsense, as anyone who has read "A Christmas Carol" or sung "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" knows.

According to RhymeZone, near rhymes for "halibuts" include "maleness". (Don't ask me why I'm looking for a rhyme for "halibuts".)

Are you ready yet for a glorious happy chubby Christmas poem? Yes you ARE! ‘Summon the spirits of bumpo and hot buttered rum’ and ‘a bishop bearing the orb of a clove-spiked orange’… every good Xmas party needs a drunken bishop… @mfrancispoet.bsky.social from Wing, pub. @faberbooks.bsky.social

From my 1996 long poem Blizzard: Da da DADA da da DA da. Swit. Swirlywhoop. And the wurble will pfee wubwubwub. Number wub in the chart. Da da DADA de toute facon schwee woo ah bien d'accord when I'm feeling woo oo oo oo oo oo oo ooh. Jetzt sie witz einig. Wump. Getting anything?

The late Meic Stephens, canvassing for Plaid Cymru in Merthyr in 1966, was asked by a woman in curlers why Wales needed a Parliament of its own. "To look after its own affairs." "Oh," she said, "we don't have affairs up here, love. It's too cold. We do all go down to Ponty for that."

A lovely poem ("Typewriter") by @mfrancispoet.bsky.social, which should bring back good memories for those aged 50+.

Nice review of my novel Nocturne with Gaslamps: graciado.com/2024/10/06/m...

My Arabian pennywhistle.

Being in a workshop was very important for me when I was starting out as a poet, but I never let them tell me how to write. What mattered was seeing how other people understood my poems. Before I joined I was basically writing in a private language.

A writer's commercial success has little to do with how well they write. This is because books are bought by people who haven't read them yet. Hence celebrity novels etc. The solution is an online text that charges by the page - you get page 1 free, then to read on you have to pay.

I've finally left Twitter.

I've just trodden on a slug. That'll teach me not to walk on the lounge carpet in bare feet.

Here's a review in Italian of my poetry collection Wing, together with translations of three of the poems. You can use Google Translate to translate them into English. Interestingly the retranslated poems come out very close to the original text. poetarumsilva.com/2024/10/24/n...

#Ludwig was great, but can we have a bit more actual #Cambridge detail in the setting and stories for series 2, please? A few drone shots of colleges can't disguise the fact that these plots could be happening anywhere.

A Spooky Halloween Evening at Waterstones, Aberystwyth, 7pm on 31 Oct. I'll be reading from my new ghostly thriller Nocturne with Gaslamps and talking about it with Professor Matt Jarvis.

Great poetry reading last night at the Horse Hospital, London, with Jeremy Clarke, Gill Gregory and Michael Lee Rattigan, to celebrate Rufus Books and Jeremy's book Stone Hours.

Looking forward to this. www.thehorsehospital.com/events/rufus...

An article in the Cambrian News describes my new novel Nocturne with Gaslamps (Neem Tree Press) as "set in the dark and bloody time of Jack the Rippler"!

Writing rhyming poetry, I often have recourse to a site called RhymeZone. Some of its US rhyme suggestions don't work in the UK and it doesn't understand how stress affects rhyme. Some choices are bizarre. One of its suggested rhymes for "alive" was "George IV".

First print review of my novel Nocturne with Gaslamps: "This ghostly tale, set in Victorian London, is an atmospheric evocation of its nights of deep darkness... An expertly re-created glimmer of old London's glorious eccentricity." Philippa Williams, The Lady. .

Giving up chess. It had become an unhealthy addiction, and I have to admit I was never very good at it.

Me reading an extract from my new novel, Nocturne with Gaslamps: www.dailymotion.com/video/x95uqgi

All the blog review of my new novel Nocturne with Gaslamps.

3rd and last of my #Victorian #ghost stories, from newspapers: "He said that a tall man dressed in a rough frieze coat, with a mask on his face representing the head of a swine, walked alongside him, through Houndswell, for a considerable distance, without addressing him... 1/2

My novel Nocturne with Gaslamps is out this week. Look out for reviews. "Dancing with intrigue and period charm, Nocturne with Gaslamps is Victorian crime mystery at its most characterful and gloriously gothic." #BookSky www.lovereading.co.uk/book/9781915...

Another #ghost story from a C19 newspaper: "On the 15th of December last, about ten in the evening, some servants belonging to a brewhouse in the neighbourhood were returning with a friend from the outskirts into the town when they were met with the Ghost... 1/3