THE T.S. ELIOT MEMORIAL READING

Two poets

David Harsent was in his late teens, and working in a bookshop, before he first met someone with whom he could share his passion for poetry. Since then, he has himself become one of Britain’s most celebrated poets. In the autumn, the ‘vivid and epulchral power’ of his ninth collection,¬†Legion, won him the Forward Poetry Prize, and a place on the shortlists of both the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award. Jo Shapcott, also a former winner of the Forward prize, and the only person to have won the National Poetry Competition twice, has recently been appointed President of the Poetry Society. She writes with what has been described as a ‘passionate reticence’, and she believes that poetry ought to disturb; ‘if it didn’t, it wouldn’t be working’. The two read from, and discuss, their work. Chaired by David Dabydeen

Recorded Monday 5 June 2006.