Speaker’s corner
In Competition No. 3292, you were invited to provide a poem to mark the death of Betty Boothroyd. The formidable…
Let us pray
In Competition No. 3290, you were invited to recast the Lord’s Prayer as a sonnet. The late Frank Kermode reckoned…
Man down
In Competition No. 3289, you were invited to provide an extract from a politically correct version of a work by…
Bring up the bodies
In Competition No. 3288, you were invited to supply a sonnet on an embarrassing ailment. To make space for as…
Subject matters
In Competition No. 3287, you were invited to supply a review of a film, novel, poem or play in the…
That’s amore
In Competition No. 3286, you were invited to submit a toe-curling Valentine poem to Harry, or to the love object…
On song
In Competition No. 3285, you were invited to supply an extract from the libretto of a musical based on the…
Hoping for the best
In Competition No. 3281, you were invited to provide 16 lines of cheerful welcome to 2023 in the metre of…
You’ve got mail
In Competition No. 3280, you were invited to submit an updating of W.H. Auden’s ‘Night Mail’ entitled ‘Email’. ‘Night Mail’…
First-class citizen
In Competition No. 3278, you were invited to supply a well-known writer’s response to the question what makes the perfect…
Grave thoughts
In Competition No. 3277, you were invited to supply a poem to mark the 100th anniversary of the discovery of…
Erratum
In Competition No. 3276, you were invited to supply an extract from the memoir of a celebrity with some unfortunate…
Beyond the cringe
In Competition No. 3274, you were invited to supply toe-curling analogies. Bad writing has attracted some high-brow fans. J.R.R. Tolkien…
Dear diary
In Competition No. 3272, you were invited to imagine a well-known diarist, real or fictitious, commenting on contemporary events. This…
Serial drama
In Competition No. 3271, you were invited to submit a poem about the Oxford comma. Thérèse Coffey’s much-maligned edict about…
Lines on lines
In Competition No. 3270, you were invited to submit a short story entitled ‘The Queue’. As well as inspiring this…
Queen’s favourite
In Competition No. 3269, you were invited to write a poem about Her late Majesty’s favourite things. Alongside the more…
Blood and honey
In Competition No. 3268, you were invited to recast an extract from children’s literature in the horror genre. In the…
