Andrew Motion, poet laureate from 1999 to 2009, was born on this date in 1952. Here are some of the things he said about poetry, life and writing:
Poems are a hotline to our hearts, and we forget this emotional power at our peril.
Honour the miraculousness of the ordinary.
I write between 5.30am and 9.00. That way, I hope I carry over something from my dream time.
Well, it's a badge of honour for any self-respecting poet to be criticised by Auberon Waugh.
In a fragile environment, we need to be aware of ourselves as members of a uniquely powerful species living among other species who are quite as interesting as we are but vulnerable to us because we are cleverer in more destructive ways.
I'm also a great believer in the dream life; that while we're asleep, a deep subconscious connection is made about our profoundest fears, hopes, loves, losses, dreads and desires.
Pretty much the day I stopped being laureate, the poems that had been few and far between came back to me, like birds in the evening nesting in a tree.
I've always thought that the balance between the side of my mind that knows what it is doing and the side that really hasn't got a clue has to be carefully maintained because if you write too knowingly then you get chilly, and if you write too unknowingly you write bollocks that nobody else can understand.
Think with your senses as well as your brain.
Decide when in the day (or night) it best suits you to write, and organise your life accordingly.
Character birthday
Evelyn “Lyn” Lorimer, journalist and genetic variant sceptic. Having written much about genetic variant powers being fake or illusions, she had to come to terms with her son, Julian, and her sister, Rosemary Ellis (Shadow) were variants. She appears in Runs in the Family.
Secrets and Skies
Jack Ward, President of Innovia, owes his life twice over to the enigmatic superhero, dubbed Power Blaster by the press. No-one knows who Power Blaster is or where he comes from - and he wants it to stay that way.
Scientist Desi Troyes has developed a nuclear bomb to counter the ever present threat of an asteroid hitting the planet. When Ward signs the order giving the go ahead for a nuclear test on the remote Bird Island, he has no inkling of Troyes' real agenda, and that he has signed the death warrants of millions of people.
Although the island should have been evacuated, there are people still there: some from the distant continent of Classica; protesters opposed to the bomb test; and Innovians who will not, or cannot, use their communication devices.
Power Blaster knows he must stop the bomb from hitting the island. He also knows it may be the last thing he ever does.
Meanwhile in Innovia, Ward and his staff gather to watch the broadcast of the test. Nobody, not even Troyes himself, has any idea what is about to happen.
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