What do you do?
A poet and university lecturer. I published my first poem in the New Statesman in 1986.
Where do you live?
Exeter.
Do you vote?
Always.
How long have you been a subscriber?
Five years.
What made you start?
I needed an antidote to all the right-wing media.
Is the NS bug in the family?
It’s read by others in the smaller rooms of the house.
What pages do you flick to first?
I check that Nicholas Lezard is still alive, then Rachel Cooke’s review, then the politics.
How do you read yours?
Back to front.
What would you like to see more of in the NS?
Climate optimism and poets.
Who are your favourite NS writers?
Andrew Marr, Melissa Harrison.
Who would you put on the cover of the NS?
Gail Bradbrook.
With which political figure would you least like to be stuck in a lift?
Suella Braverman.
All-time favourite NS article?
Melissa Harrison on solastalgia.
The New Statesman is…
now wrapped in paper.
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This article appears in the 23 Aug 2023 issue of the New Statesman, Inside Britain’s Exclusive Sect