The poetry of age and ageing will be featured at two events in England and Scotland next month. The Emma Press is launching its Anthology of Age on Tuesday 6 October at the Star of Kings pub at King’s Cross, London, at 7.30pm. The event will be introduced by editor Sarah Hesketh, with readings from Sophie F Baker, Aileen Ballantyne, Clare Best, Julia Bird, Jo Brandon, Oliver Comins, Hugh Dunkerley, Robert Hamberger, Hilaire, Holly Hopkins, Sandra Horn, Emma-Jane Hughes, Harry Man, Cheryl Moskowitz and Susan Taylor.

Anthology editor Sarah Hesketh recently published The Hard Word Box, a collection based on her experiences of and conversations with residents at a care home in Preston.  

Meanwhile in Edinburgh on Thursday 15 October at 6.30pm poets Diana Hendry, Vicki Feaver and Douglas Dunn will launch their poems on age in Second Wind, a Saltire Society pamphlet. The free event is already fully booked.

Here are Douglas Dunn’s poem, ‘Curmudgeon’, Vicki Feaver’s ‘The Larder’, and Diana Hendry’s ‘Parting’, all from the Second Wind pamphlet.   

ILLUSTRATION: EMMA WRIGHT / THE EMMA PRESS