A poetry magazine that has been on the scene since 1999 has announced that its latest issue, no 41, will be its last “for the foreseeable future”. Monkey Kettle, based in Milton Keynes, says on its website: “Although it was a tough decision to make after 15 years’ service, we felt that we’re currently unable to put in the man-hours such an output deserves, especially given the legendarily low circulation it enjoys. It’s been great fun, but all things have their day. Who knows? Maybe when Real Life (booooo!!!) settles down a bit in a few years we might resurrect it in some format. We’ll see.”

Monkey Kettle’s editor, Matthew Taylor, told Write Out Loud: “Most of our circulation consisted of the published poets in the issues, who got a free copy each. As we've done less and less events around town, and as the few poetry nights that there were in MK have slowly melted away, we don't sell many copies now.”

He described the magazine’s ethos and identity thus: “We were basically a bunch of cheerful low-rent artists and writers who wanted somewhere to put our writing and other writing we liked. I think generally what limited recognition we've had on the poetry scene tended to focus around our overall sense of fun, our sense of humour and - as many people have put it better than me - our ‘DIY aesthetic’.”

Asked what he thought the future held for other, similar magazines, he said: “I think a mag like Monkey Kettle, which essentially ran at a loss for 15, is possible to produce by anyone as long as they're stubborn to the point of idiocy and are doing it primarily for their own fun. I do know of other similar mags which seem to make it work, though. As long as there's a physical outlet for them, I think people are always happy to pick up something cheap and cheerful!”

Monkey Kettle adds on its website: "We'll still be digging away round the outskirts of the local arts and music scene, putting on gigs, exhibitions, whatever takes our fancy whenever it takes our fancy. And of course we’re still publishing the written word too, in the form of our themed short story collections."