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Events.

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Thursday 11 July 2024
5.30 pm
Ecopoetics & Environmental Artivism, Richmond Park
Earth House
with Sean Borodale
Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park TW10 5HX
Matthew Hollis was born in Norwich, UK, in 1971. Ground Water (Bloodaxe, 2004) was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the Whitbread Prize for Poetry and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. He is co-editor of Strong Words: Modern Poets on Modern Poetry (Bloodaxe Books, 2000) and 101 Poems Against War (Faber & Faber, 2003), and editor of Selected Poems of Edward Thomas (Faber, 2011). Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas (Faber, 2011; W. W. Norton, 2012) won the Costa Biography Award and the H. W. Fisher Biography Prize and was Sunday Times Biography of the Year. In 2016 he published limited letterpress and hand-made pamphlets, Stones (Incline Press, 2016) and East (Clutag Press, 2016). Leaves, a pamphlet poem published by Hazel Press in 2020, was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Pamphlet Award, and was followed by Havener (Bonnefant Press, 2022). The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem was published in 2022 (Faber; Norton); Earth House, a volume of poems, by Bloodaxe Books, 2023.
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Sean Borodale was born in London in 1973 and lives in Liverpool and Ireland. He works as a poet and artist, making scriptive and documentary poems written on location. He was Resident Artist & Writer at Bluecoat, Liverpool, 2016-2017 and was Creative Fellow at Trinity College Cambridge from 2013-15.
He was selected as a Granta New Poet in 2012, and his debut collection Bee Journal was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Costa Book Award in 2013. Mighty Beast, a documentary poem for Radio 3 won the Radio Academy Gold Award in 2014 for Best Feature or Documentary.
His topographical poem 'Notes for an Atlas' was recommended by Robert Macfarlane in the Guardian Summer Books 2005. It was performed in 2007 at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, directed by Mark Rylance, as part of the first London Festival of Literature.
Borodale’s second collection of poems, Human Work, was published in 2015. Among many projects and residencies to date he was Northern Arts Fellow at the Wordsworth Trust in 1999, and from 2002–7 he was a teaching fellow at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL.
Friday 26–Saturday 27 April 2024
7pm & 11am
Cheltenham Poetry Festival

Earth House

with Matthew M. C. Smith
St Andrew’s Church, Cheltenham, GL50 1SP
​Friday 26 April, 7pm
Two poets, who are inspired by the rich stories of the past and their impact on the present, share their transportive, multi-layered work. 

Matthew Hollis reads from his critically acclaimed collection Earth House, in which he evokes the landscape, language, and ecology of the isles of Britain and Ireland to explore how our most intimate moments have resonance in the wider cycle of life. Beginning in the slate waters of the north, the book revolves around the cardinal points and the ancient elements: through the wide skies of the east and the terrain of a southern city, to the embers of places lost to us, to which we can no longer return. What emerges is a moving meditation on time and the transformative phases of nature that calls many forces into its presence – the wisdoms of Anglo-Saxon verse, the metamorphoses of Norse and Celtic myth, the stoicism of classical thought and the far East – unforgettably phrased by a writer who, in the words of the TLS, ‘makes the language of his poetry an event in itself’. Earth House was Longlisted for the Laurel Prize for Poetry, a Book of the Year and Summer Reading in the Tablet, BBC Radio 4 Extra Poetry Book of the Month, Poem of the Week in the Guardian,Telegraph and Yorkshire Times Poem of the Week, and Featured Poem in Traveller. 

Matthew M. C. Smith is a Welsh poet from Swansea. His work is widely published in journals, such as Poetry Wales, Ink Sweat and Tears, Finished Creatures, The Lonely Crowd, and Arachne Press. He has published two collections, Origin: 21 Poems (2018) and The Keeper of Aeons (The Broken Spine, 2022), and has academic essays on Robert Graves and Celticism in the International Journal of Welsh Writing in English. Matthew is campaigning for the return of the Red Lady of Paviland from Oxford to Swansea and edits Black Bough Poetry and Top Tweet Tuesday.

This event is kindly sponsored by The Ken Healy STEM Fund
On Edward Thomas
Now All Roads Lead to France
Cheltenham Friends Meeting House, Cheltenham, GL52 2NP
​Saturday 27 April, 11am
We are delighted to be hosting two readings featuring internationally acclaimed poet and biographer Matthew Hollis at this year’s festival. In this event, we celebrate an esteemed poet Edward Thomas from the newly coined ‘Gloucestershire School’ of poetry when Matthew reads from and discusses Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas – described John Carey, in the Sunday Times as ‘a thoughtful and scrupulous book . . . A Bravura critical performance.’ 

Edward Thomas was the most beguiling of the poets who lost their lives in the First World War. More or less unread in his lifetime, his writing has had a powerful influence on poetry today. Matthew Hollis’ haunting account of his final five years – Now All Roads Lead to France – is centered on Thomas’s extraordinary friendship with Robert Frost and Thomas’s decision, in 1915, to enlist in the army and go to fight in France. 

Now All Roads Lead to France is also an evocation of an astonishingly creative moment in English literature, a time when London was both the world capital for poets and a battleground for new, ambitious kinds of writing. Under Frost’s encouragement, Thomas began writing poem after poem and in 1914 the two friends formed the ideas that would produce some of the most remarkable verse of the twentieth century. War put an ocean between them: Frost returned to the safety of New England while Thomas stayed to fight for the Old. It is these roads taken – and those not taken – that are at the heart of this unforgettable book, which culminates in Thomas’s tragic death on Easter Monday 1917.  

Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas won the Costa Biography Award and the H. W. Fisher Biography Prize and was Sunday Times Biography of the Year. 

‘I read this book entranced, inspired, anxious and grateful and I finished it in tears. It is important and it is wonderful.’
— Carol Ann Duffy

This event is kindly sponsored by The Ken Healy STEM Fund ​​.
Thursday 29 February 2024
7.00 pm
Books on the Rise, Richmond Upon Thames
The Waste Land
Books on the Rise, 80 Hill Rise, Richmond TW10 6UB
On Thursday 29th of February at 7PM we will be joined by Matthew Hollis for a talk, presentation and signing for his new book The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem.

The Waste Land has been called the ‘World’s Greatest Poem’. It has been labelled the most truthful poem of its time; it has been branded a masterful fake. More than a century after its publication in 1922, T. S. Eliot’s enigmatic masterpiece remains one of the most influential works ever written.

In a remarkable feat of biography, Matthew Hollis reconstructs the creation of the poem and brings the material reality of its charged times vividly to life. He reveals the cultural and personal trauma that forged The Waste Land through the lives of its protagonists — Ezra Pound, who edited it; Vivien Eliot, who sustained it; and T. S. Eliot himself, whose private torment is woven into the seams of the work. The result is an unforgettable story of lives passing in opposing directions and the astounding literary legacy they would leave behind.

So come down to Books on the Rise for a special evening where we dive deep into The Waste Land to see what this seminal poem still reveals today!
Saturday 4 November 2023
3.45pm
Wells Festival of Literature

The Waste Land

Cedars Hall, 15 The Liberty, Wells, Somerset, BA5 2ST
Written over a century ago, The Waste Land was said to describe the moral decay of a world reeling from the Great War. In truth it encompasses a far larger canvas, as Hollis explains in this spellbinding work of literary criticism. Praised both as the most truthful poem of its time, yet condemned as a masterful fake, this is an epic poem of many layers, multiple themes and ultimate mystery. Matthew Hollis, professor, poet, author and academic, brings his extensive insight to this fascinating ‘biography’. Within its pages we discover a mosaic of historical fragments and illuminating new research, which reveals the cultural and personal trauma that forged The Waste Land through the lives of its protagonists: Ezra Pound, Vivien Eliot and TS Eliot himself, whose private torment is woven into the seams of the work.

‘This enigmatic masterpiece remains one of the most influential works ever written.’
Thursday 19 October 2023
7.30 pm
The Coronet Theatre, London
Poetry Club
with Mona Arshi & Daljit Nagra
The Coronet Theatre, 103 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3LB
We are delighted to welcome Daljit Nagra, Matthew Hollis and Mona Arshi for a spellbinding evening of poetry in our intimate candlelit bar – the fifth instalment in the 2023 series which marks the 10th anniversary of our poetry series.

Books will be available for purchase and signature in the bar after the reading where all are welcome to stay for a drink and chat to the poets.
Saturday 14–Sunday 15 October 2023
4.30pm & 5.30pm
Winchester Poetry Festival
The Waste Land
with Clare Pollard 
The Arc, Performance Hall, Winchester
​Saturday 14 October, 4.30pm
Award-winning biographer and poet Matthew Hollis has written a remarkable biography of T. S. Eliot’s celebrated poem The Waste Land on the centenary of its first publication, revealing the cultural and personal trauma that forged The Waste Land, focusing on Ezra Pound, who edited it; Vivien Eliot, who sustained it; and T. S. Eliot himself. Matthew will be delivering a lecture on this remarkable poem, and then in conversation with our artistic director Clare Pollard.​​.

Earth House

with Zaffar Kunial and guest Kathryn Bevis 
The Arc, Performance Hall, Winchester
​Sunday 15 October, 5.30pm

This event brings together two exceptional talents whose recent books explore the language, landscapes and difficult histories of these islands: cricket games, woodlands, roses and ruins.

Zaffar Kunial was born in Birmingham and lives in Yorkshire. He was a recipient of Yale University’s Windham-Campbell Prize and his first poetry collection, Us, published by Faber & Faber in 2018 appeared on a number of shortlists including the Costa Poetry Award and the T. S. Eliot Prize. His second collection, England’s Green, published by Faber in 2022, was named as The Sunday Times best poetry book of the year.

​This event will open with readings from guest Kathryn Bevis, former Hampshire Poet Laureate (2020-22). Her pamphlet, Flamingo, (Seren) was one of the Poetry Society’s ‘Books of the Year’ for 2022 and her debut collection, The Butterfly House, will be published by Seren in 2024.
Tuesday 19 September 2023
8.00 pm
Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution
The Waste Land
HLSI, 11 South Grove, Highgate, London N6 6BS
When it was first published in 1922, The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot met with a mixed reception. A century on we consider it a landmark in poetry, but does it deserve its standing? Matthew Hollis is the author of the critically acclaimed The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem; he will join us to explore the historical and personal roots that produced the poem, and the literary process that composed it, from its material grounding in the Great War to its final refinement by Ezra Pound.
Thursday 14 September 2023
12.00pm
Lutyens & Rubinstein Bookshop

The Waste Land

L&R Bookshop, 21 Kensington Park Road, London, W11 2EU
We are delighted that Matthew Hollis will join us for a daylight event.  He will discuss his most recent book ​The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem.

​To discover more about the event and book tickets please click on the links below.
Saturday 2 September 2023
4.00 pm
Queen’s Park Book Festival
Earth House
with Nick Laird 
Walter MacFarlane Stage, Queen’s Park, London NW6
Two distinguished poets reveal their new collections
Poet and novelist Nick Laird and poet and biographer Matthew Hollis have recently published new collections.  In Up Late Nick confronts questions of aloneness, friendship, and the push and pull of daily life. At the book’s heart lies a profound meditation on a father’s dying.  In Earth House Matthew Hollis evokes the landscape, language and ecology of the isles of Britain and Ireland to explore how our most intimate moments have resonance in the wider cycle of life.
Saturday 1 July 2023
10.00am & 2.00pm
Ledbury Poetry Festival
Dead Poets Society
No. 3: The Waste Land 
Burgage Hall, Ledbury, Herefordshire
​Saturday 1 July, 10.00am
In a remarkable feat of biography, Matthew Hollis reconstructs the intellectual creation of Eliot’s 1922 masterpiece, and brings the material reality of its charged times vividly to life. Presenting a mosaic of historical fragments, diaries, dynamic literary criticism and illuminating new research, he reveals the cultural and personal trauma that forged The Waste Land through the lives of its protagonists – of Ezra Pound, who edited it; of Vivien Eliot, who sustained it; and of T. S. Eliot himself, whose private torment is woven into the seams of the work.
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Poetry and Conversation

with Maya C. Popa and Neil Astley 
Burgage Hall, Ledbury, Herefordshire
​Saturday 1 July, 2.00pm
Maya C. Popa is a Romanian-American writer, academic, and editor whose books include American Faith and, newly released to rapturous acclaim, Wound is the Origin of Wonder.  Matthew Hollis’s long awaited second collection Earth House evokes the landscape, language and ecology of the isles of Britain and Ireland to explore how our most intimate moments have resonance in the wider cycle of life. Hollis is Poetry Editor at Faber & Faber, and author of Now All Roads Lead to France: the Last Years of Edward Thomas. Hosted by Bloodaxe Books editor, Neil Astley.
Friday 16 June & Saturday 17 June 2023
6.00pm & 6.30pm
Sea Fever Literary Festival
The Nature of Poetry
with Tim Dee & Briony Bax 
Wells Maltings, Staithe Street, Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk
​Friday 16 June, 6pm
John Keats wrote that to watch a sparrow was to take part in existence. How we exist – and co-exist – with the natural world will be the preoccupation of this thrilling evening of nature writing and poetry. Tim Dee is one of our leading writers on the landscape and skyscape of birds; he will be discussing Greenery, a pursuit of seasonal change, with Matthew Hollis, an award-winning poet, who will be launching Earth House, a collection of poems that celebrate the terrain of his native Anglia. The event is chaired by Briony Bax.

The Waste Land

with Jon Cook 
Wells Maltings, Staithe Street, Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk
​Saturday 17 June, 6.30pm
In the century since its publication, T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land has come to be regarded at the finest of modern poems, but does it deserve its reputation? Matthew Hollis is the author of the critically acclaimed The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem; Jon Cook is Professor of Literature at the University of East Anglia: join them as they investigate the life and times of Eliot’s ‘masterpiece’ to explore how the poem was made and what it should mean to us today.
Saturday 13 May 2023
1.30pm
Newcastle Poetry Festival

Earth House

with Kris Johnson & Carola Luther
Stage 2, Northern Stage, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RN
​This afternoon’s readings present rich meditations on Nature, wildness and the idea of home. Carola Luther was born and brought up in rural South Africa and now lives in West Yorkshire. Her third collection, On the Way to the Jerusalem Farm, was published by Carcanet in 2021 and shortlisted for the 2022 Derek Walcott prize for poetry. Kris Johnson moved from Washington State to the UK in 2007. Ghost River, her first collection, is published by Bloodaxe in 2023. Matthew Hollis is a prizewinning biographer and editor and the author of The Waste Land: A Biography, published by Faber 2022. His second poetry collection, Earth House, is published by Bloodaxe this year.
Tuesday 25 April 2023
7.00pm
Bloodaxe Books Online Launch Reading
Earth House
with Harry Clifton & Maura Dooley
Palmerston Room, St John's College, Cambridge
Launch reading with Harry Clifton, Maura Dooley and Matthew Hollis celebrating the publication of their new poetry collections.  
The poets read live and discussed their new collections with each other and with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley. Matthew read last in each set. This free Bloodaxe launch event was streamed on YouTube Live and is now available to watch via this
YouTube page: https://youtube.com/live/7Zl2Sy9rzLk
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Sunday 23 April 2023
10.00am
Cambridge Literary Festival

The Waste Land

with Alex Clark
Palmerston Room, St John's College, Cambridge
Award-winning biographer and poet Matthew Hollis returns to Cambridge with his riveting account of the making of T. S. Eliot’s celebrated poem The Waste Land on the centenary of its first publication. In a remarkable feat of biography, Matthew reconstructs the intellectual creation of the poem and brings its charged times vividly to life. Presenting a mosaic of historical fragments, diaries, dynamic literary criticism and illuminating new research, he reveals the cultural and personal trauma that forged The Waste Land through the lives of its protagonists: of Ezra Pound, who edited it; of Vivien Eliot, who sustained it; and of T. S. Eliot himself, whose private torment is woven into the seams of the work. We are delighted to have Matthew sharing with us this unforgettable story of lives passing in opposing directions and the astounding literary legacy they would leave behind. Join Matthew, who will be, in conversation with Alex Clark.
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