You are in the Special Features section - John Hegley interview

John Hegley interview

John Hegley is Britain's top poet/performer. He is also a comedian and singer/songwriter. He has published a number of books of poetry and is a regular at The Edinburgh Festival.

We caught up with John and this is the interview he gave to www.retrosellers.com

 

 

   

John Hegley

 

 

Digger: You travel all around the place with your work. Where do you call home and do you tailor your material to particular audiences and venues?

John: Home is being with family and friends on my birthday with some curry and cake in my home. Sometimes I can feel ‘at home’ with the above in a different place but maybe not a desert. When doing a comedy festival I try to slip in a few jokes. At a poetry festival, a few poems.
 
Digger: What is the 'purpose' of poetry? I mean, is it there to entertain, to provoke, to reflect happenings and ideas or a mixture of these/some other purpose?

John: Poetry is there to heal, to sadden, to dignify, to anger, to make hopeful and to fill poetry festivals.

 

 

 

 
Digger: Who are your literary heroes and who would you like to meet from history if you could?

John: I like W.S. Graham. I like Louis MacNeil. I like Flann O’Brien and his tale of the third policeman. I would like to meet Robinson Crusoe, possibly on a Thursday.
 
Digger: How do you know when a poem's finished? (How do you stop yourself from fiddling with it?)

John: A poem ‘will do’ rather than ‘be done’. Sometimes.
 
Digger: Are the British as appreciative of and receptive to poetry as other nations, such as the famously poetic Irish or Russians?

John: I do not know the answer to this question but I enjoy Irish and Russian poetry, the latter in translation and occasionally the former.
 
Digger: What makes you laugh, what makes you cross, what makes you sad and what makes you hopeful?

John: Poetry.
 
Digger: What is your biggest achievement to-date and what would you still like to accomplish?

John: It is wonderful to have gained a certain fluency in a language. In a number of poetries. There are other poetries where I would like to express my potato peelings.

 

 

 

 
Digger: What can poetry achieve that a painting, music or prose cannot?

John: Poetry.
 
Digger: Is poetry accessible to everyone and how would you suggest a novice should go about familiarising themselves with the art?

John: Certain poetries strike chords more readily with certain people. There are some poems which are very difficult but almost anyone can find in there a phrase which chord-strikes. Such a phrase I like to call ‘the gem in the word-pile.’
 
Digger: Which of your poems has given you the most trouble and which the most pleasure? (my fave is Eddie don't like furniture, particularly the last line.)

John: The poem I have spent most time on is one about my dad not speaking his mother-tongue while he lived in England. This troublesome piece also gives me much pleasure in performance as it is sung to my favourite tune, Dizzie Gillespie’s A Night In Tunisia.
 
To buy a sixties trilby secondhand
It can be rather nice
It reminds me of my father
But beware of lice
  
Digger: What did the 50s, 60s and 70s mean to you?

John: The Beatles, The Beazer, The BSA Bantam, the handwritten letter, the hand drill, the motoring glove, steam, fog, Woolworths, woolens created by my mum, liquorice, Hawkwind, rusks, mum and dad.

Digger: Can a sentence start with 'And'? I was told not by a 6-year-old the other day but seem to recall it was okay for Sam Pepys.

John: Poetry gives licence to break grammatical rules. I prefer the phrase poetic freedom.