Interview with Stephen Claughton

Yes, Poetry Lovers, we’re back in the talk show studio (rapturous applause)

And today, our wonderful esteemed guest is talented and prolific poet, Stephen Claughton. (huge applause) (Stephen Claughton glides on elegantly, if a little wary).

Thank you so much for coming on the show, Stephen. And what a cool flowery shirt and tie !(audience cheer in agreement)

Now don’t look so worried, Dobby is not about – at the moment. You won’t be bitten – yet!

That’s a relief! Pleasure to be here, Heather

I’m a big fan of your poetry, Stephen.

Would you like to fill us in on your background ?

I’d be glad to. I grew up in Manchester, read English at Oxford and worked for many years as a civil servant. I’ve recently been a borough and town councillor and was Mayor of Berkhamstead for a year.

Although I enjoyed my time in local politics, I stood down at the May elections to allow more space for poetry and my family. I have a wife, two daughters and two young grandsons.

Oh marvellous. It must have been an honour to wear that gold chain. So splendid looking.

But yes, any sort of politics is very time consuming, so that was a good move. One that’s paid off well.

As well as writing poetry, I’ve done some reviewing for The High Window and London Grip, among others.

I’m a member of Ver Poets, for whom I manage their social media and compile the monthly e-letter. I’ve recently become their Chair. We’re a long-established group in St Albans but have national and international membership.

We’re currently revamping our website and putting together a varied programme of readings, open-mic events and workshops. Open to non-members too.

Oh yes, they have a very good reputation. Reaching out to more poets is a great idea. We should all do that.

When did poetry become a part of your life?

I began writing poetry in my early teens. My mother taught English but it was my school teachers who were my main inspiration. One of our texts was The Albermarle Book of Modern Verse which became my gateway into 20th century poetry.

We remember some teachers all our lives, don’t we. They open so many doors for us.

Despite some early success, there was a long period when I didn’t produce anything, even though I still read poems. When I did send some out to magazines, editors were encouraging but nothing got published.

It wasn’t until I was in my fifties that I started writing seriously. I had a lack of time and confidence, poetry was too important to risk failing at. Then I reached an age when I realised I was going to fail by default, if I didn’t do something about it.

Yes, these moments of clarity visit us, and we’re very glad they do. But it has to be the right moment.

Who were your biggest influences?

There are lots of poets I admire and many have influenced me, but I’ll pick out two – one bad and the other good. T.S. Eliot was a great poet but a bad influence on me as a teenager. It made me think good poetry had to be obscure. I was rescued by Hugo Williams – I admired his clarity and directness as well as his poems. How he revised poems from start to finish rather than line by line. It was a revelation to me.

Yes, adore Hugo Williams. Bit ambivalent about Thomas…..

Tell us about The 3-D Clock and The War with Hannibal. Both very moving collections.

Poetry Salzburg published my first pamphlet The War with Hannibal at the end of 2019. It isn’t an epic to do with the Second Punic War: the title poem is about a Latin lesson and there are poems on a variety of subjects. One reviewer noted that a number of them occur in pairs – two about Larkin, two about tying ties, two ekphrastic poems and three about birds.

I adore those tie pieces. It is an amazingly detailed and personal collection.

And so is the The 3-D Clock, an insight into a painful journey..

The 3-D Clock which Dempsey & Windle published in 2020, deals with my late mother’s dementia. I hadn’t set out to write a sequence about it, but her illness was a large part of my life, so not surprising that it became a subject. The poems kept coming even after the pamphlet was published, although I hope they’ve stopped now – for everyone’s sake.

We might not want them to stop, Stephen. Beautiful moving poetry.

Are you working on anything at the moment?

I’ve recently finished (I think) a series of poems about drawings in Hokusai’s The Great Picture Book of Everything. The pictures were made for an encyclopaedia that wasn’t printed, so they weren’t destroyed in the woodblock-making process. The British Museum acquired them and held an exhibition a couple of years ago.

At the moment, I’m working on a sequence of sonnets about people I met in hospital many years ago. I don’t know if it will come to anything.

They’re both fascinating subjects, Stephen, and it’s funny how people in our past stay with us so powerfully. I love sonnets. I look forward to reading.

Now (Audience gasp in anticipation) what’s the best gig you’ve ever done? And the Worst…?

My best gig was in June this year, when the Toddington Poetry Society had me as a guest reader at one of the regular meetings in the Luton Irish Forum. They were very welcoming and gave me three quarters of an hour in the first half, and five minutes at the end, so I was able to read a large selection of my work. They even bought copies of my pamphlets!

My worst reading was one I organised myself. Poetry Salzburg are in Austria so I had to make my own launch for The War with Hannibal. I hired a room over a pub in Berkhamstead and had flyers printed, which I left with local bookshops and libraries. I advertised the event on social media, Ver Poets e-letter, and even contacted the local paper. Beside my wife and daughter, and some friends, only three members of the public turned up. They were polite, asked questions at the end but didn’t buy any copies.

The venue was ideal, and I enjoyed doing the reading but as a book launch, it was something of a disaster.

Dempsey & Windle were to launch The 3-D Clock at The Poetry Cafe but Covid put an end to that.

Both my pamphlets have been victims of the pandemic. I’m still trying to make up lost ground.

Yes, my heart went out to poets that had been published at that time. Well, your best gig sounded fantastic but your worst… oh no! Funny, you see these beautiful venues sometimes but….. I hope you make up for it with your next collection.

Thank you so much for coming on the show, Stephen. A fascinating and clever guest (ecstatic applause from audience) so out and about tonight, Stephen?

Dobby’s barred me from all clubs in London

Ah yes, it’s the shirt and tie, you see. She didn’t like it – and speaking of which, here she comes!

(Our esteemed guest legs it – fast!). Ah bless her, Dobby’s going after him! Now, be gentle, Dobby!

Wasn’t Stephen Claughton a wonderful and fascinating guest?! (Another ecstatic round of applause). I highly recommend Stephen’s two collections. Go to http://www.stephenclaughton.com to treat yourselves, and see more delightful poetry.