We British: The Poetry of a People

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Labour have had their own teams flat out in Uxbridge (where Boris Johnson was MP) and Mid Beds – and in Selby and Ainsty, whose Conservative MP Nigel Adams has also stood down. Selby looks almost as safe as any Tory seat could be, and Adams had a 60 per cent share of the vote at the last election. But his seat is being redistributed in a way that helps Labour and it has become one of its less obvious targets: the party will fight very hard here. Marr knows what he likes. He believes—and who can disagree?—that John Donne wrote the greatest poem about love-making ever written: “Licence my roving hands, and let them go/ Before, behind, between, above, below.” My only quibble is the absence of the superb Anglo-Welsh Katherine Philips (1632 -1664) and her poignant poems about miscarriage and stillbirth.

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It is a history, not written in terms of detailed, consequential events, but a history of context, of the prevailing climate, of social pressures and enduring passions. I remember being impressed with the opening, which presents Caedmon, our earliest known poet, (in translation as well as in the original Northumbrian dialect) as freshly and vividly as though he were alive today. It’s not surprising that there should be a bit more historical context in the early section of the book than in the later periods, where Andrew Marr seems frequently to lament that he has to omit poems that he admires, or limit himself to extracts. Politicians in London must start talking to forces inside Israel beyond Netanyahu’s cabinet. We need better conversations with Egypt, Fatah, Jordan and the Israeli opposition, and a major international aid programme. How developed is Labour’s foreign policy network beyond Europe? That is, suddenly, an important question. The standard-model memoir has three purposes: to settle scores, to nudge the dial of the historical verdict, and above all to win a publisher’s advance that is unlikely to be earned out. The resulting book is reviewed everywhere and read nowhere. The British public, who voted the author in, barely features, except as comic extras writing cranky letters and making ignorant observations at by-elections. Boris Johnson’s constituents react to resignation as Labour eyes by-electionA by-election and a new MP await for the people of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, in West London. PGMcNamara speaks to voters there about Boris Johnson’s resignation. Speaking on LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr, the presenter analysed how Mr Johnson continues to maintain his ability to dominate the headlines - despite Nicola Sturgeon being arrested and the death of ex-Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi.

Tory MP Jake Berry Gets Rinsed For Claiming 'The Blob' Brought Down Boris JohnsonThe former party chairman is the latest Johnson ally to rush to the defence of the disgraced ex-PM. Yet this isn’t the time for uncontroversial journalism. We are told not to connect the history of Israeli occupation with the foul terrorism unleashed by Hamas. But without context, without explanation, all we are left with is a chaos of inexplicable human evil from which there is no political exit. I quoted Yeats. Here’s Auden’s poem “September 1, 1939”, written at another ominous moment: “I and the public know/What all schoolchildren learn/Those to whom evil is done/Do evil in return.” Politicians like Denis Healey and Margaret Thatcher were intellectually self-confident. They knew who they were and what they thought. Given a question designed to cause them a bit of trouble, they were likely to confront it directly and win the argument. Too many politicians these days think getting through 15 minutes on a political show without making a ripple is a success. They’re incredibly risk-averse. Read more: ‘It wasn't done well, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try again’: Ex-Tory chairman hints Trussonomics could return

Speaking of the resignation, Marr highlighted that "it's not because he doesn't have enough supporters", as he noted Rishi Sunak's tactic of distancing himself from his predecessors. I’ve interviewed seven prime ministers: Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Johnson, Sunak. I interviewed Liz Truss, too, but not as prime minister. Almost nobody did. There wasn’t time. I’m sure we’d have got round to it in due course. It took me a long time to read this book, because I was often tempted to follow up or explore further poets or poetry extracts featured in it. I would say that it opened windows for me. In the concluding paragraphs Andrew Marr calls it, “a book about poets for lovers of poetry” and I did find, throughout the book, that poems I had skimmed through before came to life for me when I learned more about the poet and the contemporary relevance of the work. Again and again, she calls out patronising, defensive police chiefs, scientists, corporate bosses or civil servants who do not appear to have the public good at the front of their minds.

I think he is someone who all his life has expected optimistically - and perhaps in a narcissistic way, that something useful will turn up and mostly, so far, it has done. But not this time," he said. His tone is light, even flippant, but his commentary is both incisive and profound. There were no more than two or three occasions, as far as I can recall now, where his style of writing jarred. One was where he was at pains to point out that he does not believe in God; it didn’t add anything to what he was saying, and by comparison with his usually carefully phrased commentaries it stood out. I was going to say, “like a sore thumb” but then remembered that I actually got a sore thumb while reading this book, as it’s pretty fat and heavy last thing at night as one is drifting off . . .. but that didn’t add anything either to what I am supposed to be writing about, so I shall stop being hard on Andrew Marr for the odd personal intervention in a book that engrosses, elucidates and elevates.

A new executive for the 1922 Committee could change the rules and, if submerged by a sea of new letters, hold a leadership contest almost immediately. “We could do the whole thing in a matter of days,” one anti-Johnson Tory told me. The Forward Book of Poetry 2024 brings together the best poetry from 2023, including great work shortlisted and Highly Commended in the 2023 Forward Prizes.