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Andy Croft
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Books / 18 July 2025
18 July 2025

ANDY CROFT rallies poets to the impossible task of speaking truth to a tin-eared politician

Culture / 30 October 2022
30 October 2022
New titles from Fran Lock, Richard Skinner, Tara Bergin and Mark A Murphy
21st Century Poetry / 25 September 2022
25 September 2022
New titles from Kurdish poet İlhan Sami Comak and Volker Braun, one of Germany’s most important writers
21st century poetry / 26 August 2022
26 August 2022
New collections from Neil Fulwood, Kevin Higgins, Clare Saponia, Nora Blascsok and Peter Godfrey
CHILE DEMANDS: 'Until dignity is customary'
21st Century Poetry / 5 June 2022
5 June 2022
Culture / 20 February 2022
20 February 2022
While the enemy’s ideas of culture are disfigured by money, snobbery, ignorance and dullness, the left still has the poets with something to say
Book Review / 24 October 2021
24 October 2021
Three great new collections about the unknowable past and the unknown future
Jack Hirschman at Caffe Trieste, in San Francisco, on Novemb
Obituary / 18 October 2021
18 October 2021
ANDY CROFT salutes poet Jack Hirschman, an indefatigable communist activist
Trisha Heaney’s Apricot Sun has many strong poems like Dro
Books / 25 September 2021
25 September 2021
New offerings from Rebecca Lowe, Alun Rees, Mike Jenkins, Trisha Heaney and William Blake at the Bridge Hotel that showcases the work of 10 longstanding cultural activists on Tyneside
(L to R) Anne Robinson, Ruth Valentine and Selina Rodrigues
Poetry / 16 August 2021
16 August 2021
Latest collections from Greg Freeman, Emma Jones, Ruth Valentine, Anna Robinson, Selina Rodrigues and Antony Owen
RESPONDING TO THE NEWS: Simon Haines
LITERATURE / 15 June 2021
15 June 2021
Latest collections from Farid Bitar, Simon Haines, Michael Crowley and Martin Hayes
ANA FAN: Che Guevara in his Bolivian 'tree library'
LITERATURE / 2 May 2021
2 May 2021
'History as error and correction': collections from Marcos Ana and Paul Mills
MEHRANGIZ RASSAPOUR: 'Hollow medals of heroism/Fame without
LITERATURE / 5 April 2021
5 April 2021
Writings of resistance from poets in exile
LITERATURE / 22 February 2021
22 February 2021
Reviews of latest collections from Alan Morrison, Kevin Higgins, Graham Fulton, RF Francis and James Womack
RESOLUTE: Sylvia Pankhurst recovering from her hunger strike
LITERATURE / 25 January 2021
25 January 2021
Reviews of collections by Sylvia Pankhurst, Chawki Abdelamir and Martin Hayes
GREATS: (Left to right) Tasos Leivaditis, Nicolas Calas and
21ST-CENTURY POETRY / 2 September 2020
2 September 2020
Collections from Pablo Neruda, Nicolas Calas and Tasos Leivaditis
VIVIDLY DESCRIPTIVE: Louisa Adjoa Parker
21ST-CENTURY POETRY / 25 June 2020
25 June 2020
Two accomplished collections from Grace Nichols and Louisa Adjoa Parker explore what it means to live between two worlds
IMPRISONED FOR HER POETRY: Dareen Tatour
21ST-CENTURY POETRY / 8 June 2020
8 June 2020
Naomi Foyle, Natalie Scott, Carolyn Forche and Rachel Burns have produced some outstanding collections
Features / 25 May 2020
25 May 2020
To mark Local and Community History Month, ANDY CROFT has been talking to two veterans of the Communist Party in Middlesbrough about their memories of the 1960s
DESCRIBING THE MONSTER: Chen Chen
TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY POETRY / 17 April 2020
17 April 2020
In a new collection, US poets challenge the dehumanisation of the Trump era
UNIQUE: Ian McMillan
Books / 10 February 2020
10 February 2020
Reviews of latest collections from Ian McMillan and Culture Matters
LISTENER: Raymond Antrobus
Books / 1 December 2019
1 December 2019
Collections from Raymond Antrobus, Bob Beagrie and Owen Gallagher
Unafraid: Deborah Alma
21st-century poetry / 24 November 2019
24 November 2019
Poets pinpoint the collections they have most enjoyed reading over the last year
Rebooting the saints: Fran Lock
Literature / 27 October 2019
27 October 2019
Latest collections from Culture Matters, Fran Lock, Jay Bernard and Chris Nash