Now, hear this...

I was back at the Cheltenham Poetry Festival today where I went to see Bernard O'Donoghue, winner of the Whitbread Prize for Poetry, whose poems, according to the festival programme, have long captivated readers with their lyricism, grace, and their 'scrupulous honesty'. (John Burnside). Born in Cork in 1945, O'Donoghue has lived in Oxford, where he teaches Medieval History at Wadham College, since 1965. His recent Selected Poems (2008) and Farmers Cross (2011) were published by Faber, and much praised. His work is 'sane and beautiful, these poems are powerful in a way that is rare in contemporary verse' according to the Guardian, which also noted that his 'unusual claim on the reader is that he is always excellent company'.