Michael Rosen
Where and when were you born?
In some kind of nursing home called ‘The Firs’, near Harrow-on-the Hill Station, Middlesex, 7th May 1946
Could you tell us something
about your background?
When I was born my father was a secondary school English teacher and my mother had been a secretary working on the ‘Daily Worker’ newspaper, then at the Kodak factory. In 1948, she trained to be a primary school teacher. Later, my father went into teacher training and eventually became a Professor of English language and literature in Education at the Institute of Education. My mother later went into teacher training too, at what was then Trent Park College (now Middlesex University). She died in 1976 at the age of 56.
They were both brought up in
the East End of London in what was then an almost hundred per cent Jewish
community. My mother’s family had its origins in Poland and Romania (her
mother’s side, possibly intermarrying with Gypsies – which was not unusual at
the time). Her father worked as a factory worker in a schoolboys’ cap-making
factory. Her mother tried on one occasion to run a hat shop in Globe Road, off
the Roman Road, but it failed. My father’s father’s family migrated out of
Bialystock, to London where his parents met, and then to the States where my
father was born. His father and mother split and so when my father was two his
mother returned to London with him, his sister and his baby brother and his
mother brought him up in her parents’ house just behind the (Royal, as it is
now) London Hospital.
My parents met when they were
16 in what used to be called the Young Communists League. My father’s parents
were radicals, his father was a union organiser in the US for the boot and shoe
workers, his mother was a founder member of the Communist Party of Great
Britain. She was also disabled having had polio when she was young.
Were either of your parents or grandparents (or any other relatives) writers? If not, were any of your relatives actively interested in literature?
Both my parents were crazy
about books, loved reading, the theatre, performance and poetry. Over the years
my father has written plenty of poetry (some of which has been published) and
also a set of autobiographical stories (also published). My mother didn’t write
poetry for most of her life, but in her last years, when she was ill, she did
write some poems which my father published.
They also wrote an enormous
number of talks and articles within the educational world, my mother reading
some of these on what was then the Home Service. My mother also presented some
programmes for BBC Schools Radio in the late sixties.
Our house was jam-packed with
books, my parents were always reading books, collecting recordings of writers
reading their poems, listening to programmes about writers and books on the
radio and then when we finally got a TV in 1956, they actively searched for TV
programmes about writers and books too. They were also very keen on what I’d
call ‘anecdoting’ relishing their own and others’ anecdotes. They particularly
liked people like Peter Ustinov when he went in for his storytelling.
Are any of your siblings
writers or involved in a creative profession?
I have one brother who has written scientific reports all his life and on occasions has written poetry and stories.
What was the first poem (or who was the first poet) that turned you on to poetry?
Very hard to say, as plenty of poems were in my head and in the air in the house, before I thought – hey I would like to write like that. It was, in the end, poetic prose that got me thinking I could do that: the early pages of ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ by James Joyce.
What age were you when you first began writing poetry, and did you receive any encouragement?
Outside of school, the first time I wrote poetry off my own bat was when I was sixteen. I received an enormous amount of encouragement from my parents and also from one of my father’s colleagues at the university, Nancy Martin, herself an educational writer.
When you started writing poetry did you have dreams about becoming a "professional" poet? If so, did anyone advise you against this course of action?
I don’t think I did. At the time, I was keener on becoming an actor. No one advised me either way.
Did you ever get a poem
published in your school magazine?
Yes, I did. Several poems and stories were published in the school magazine of Harrow Weald Country Secondary School from 1957-62 and then when I moved to Watford Grammar School, several poems were published in the school magazine there between 1962 and 1964.
Did you go to university, and
if so, which subject(s) did you study?
At first, I went to Middlesex Hospital Medical School and studied a First MB, for one year from 1964-1965. Then I went to Wadham College, Oxford and studied for a Degree in Physiology for one year from 1965-1966, passing my ‘Prelims’ at the end of that academic year. I then changed course and studied for a degree in English Language and Literature from 1966-1969 and got a degree at the end of that period.
When did you first start submitting to poetry magazines? And can you tell us how many rejections you received before having something accepted for publication?
I never really submitted poetry to magazines (apart from the university one, Isis).
What was the worst rejection
you ever received?
The worst and silliest was from Faber. The editor of children’s books said that ‘children don’t like poetry written from their point of view’. In fact, the most well-known poetry for children in England (Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘A Child’s Garden of Verses’ and A.A. Milne’s work is written from a child’s point of view!
What was your first published poem? Which poetry magazine published it? And what year was it published?
Excluding school and university magazines, I’d have to say that it was in the booklets produced by BBC Schools Radio to accompany their programmes. I think it was in one called ‘Living Language’ in about 1968 or 1969.
Round about the time that you started seriously writing poetry, who were your literary heroes? And would you say they had an influence on your writing style?
D.H. Lawrence, Carl Sandburg, Gerard Manley Hopkins, ‘folk’ poetry of songs and ballad and, as explained above, James Joyce. As with a lot of writers, I didn’t really ever write in one way only and right from the start wrote in ways that to my ear have learnt a lot from all these authors and styles. I tried writing folk poems (and occasionally still do), prose poetry like Joyce’s prose, conversational pieces similar to Sandburg’s, reflective monologues like Lawrence’s and even dense, syntactically experimental pieces like Hopkins.
Have you ever attended a creative writing course or been involved in a writers' group? If so, did you find it useful?
No.
When did you put together your
first collection of poetry?
This was ‘Mind Your Own Business’ (1974) which began life in my mind as a sequence of autobiographical poems about my childhood, intended for adults. Many of them are free verse, but there are also a few more formal pieces interlaced with Quentin Blake’s energetic, insightful drawings. The pieces that aren’t told by an ‘I’, now strike me quite clearly as visions that the ‘I’ has, though at the time, they appeared slightly out of place.
How long did it take to get it accepted for publication? And, if appropriate, how many times was it rejected?
I think I hawked the poems around for a year or so, beginning with Faber as they had published a play I had written. In the end, thanks to a colleague of my father’s, Margaret Meek (aka Spencer), the poems ended up on the desk of Pam Royds, children’s editor at Andre Deutsch and she liked them, married up with Quentin Blake and that’s how it came out in 1974.
How long did you have to wait
between acceptance and final publication?
Given that Quentin had to do the drawings, not all that long – perhaps a year or eighteen months.
What sort of critical response
did you receive?
Unbelievably enthusiastic, most notably from the two most revered critics of children’s books at the time, Brian Alderson and John Rowe Townsend.
Would you say that your
publisher actively promoted the book?
They were very keen on it, talked it up, but publishers don’t really promote poetry.
Did you do readings and signings at bookshops to help promote the book? If so, did you organise these yourself, or were they organised by your publisher? And would you say that they had a significant effect on sales figures?
I do readings in schools, book fairs, literary festivals, colleges and teachers’ groups. Most of these I organise myself. I used to the occasional bookshop signing – these were organised by the publisher – but they’re not really worth doing for someone like me. I’m not that well-known and people aren’t going to lay aside a special time just to get a book signed by me, and I don’t blame them one jot!
How many copies of the book
sold?
Over the years, I guess in hardback and then paperback, it may have reached 50,000.
Is it still in print?
At the beginning of your writing career did you enter any poetry competitions? Did you enter a lot or just a few? Did you have any success? And, with hindsight, what are your thoughts about the relative merits or demerits of poetry competitions?
I entered what used to be called the ‘Daily Mirror’ competition – it turned later into the W.H.Smith’s competition – cut-off age, I think was 17 or 18. I think I got commended. I shouldn’t really have entered as my father was one of the preliminary judges. I did mark the piece with this information though!
Which of your poetry books has been the most successful in terms of sales, and how many copies has it sold to date?
I think it’s probably ‘Quick Let’s Get Out of Here’ which must have sold something like 100,000.
Have you won any awards for
your poetry?
I won the ‘Signal’ prize for the best collection of poetry for children in any given year. It was for ‘You Can’t Catch Me’. The ‘Signal’ prize is now the CLPE prize.
Do you make a living out of
poetry?
If not, do you make an adequate living through poetry related activities such as teaching creative writing workshops? Or do you have to supplement your income through unrelated activities?
I do a variety of things – write books that aren’t poetry, some of which, like ‘We’re Going On A Bear Hunt’ sell very well. (In a way, it’s a poetry book as it’s the text of a single, children’s summer camp chant that I’ve adapted.) I also do a lot of radio and small amount of TV, none of which is related directly to poetry. The school visits, talks and performances contribute quite a bit to my income too. The last component of my income is teaching children’s literature at a university, not really related to the poetry .
With the benefit of hindsight, are you glad that you pursued your dream of being a poet? Also, if you could turn the clock back, would you do anything different?
Yes to the dream. Anything different? I might have exploited a little more the fact that I can do a kind of stand-up show for families. It incorporates poetry but is not exclusively poetry.
If a young would-be poet approached you, which poets would you recommend as vital reading?
I wouldn’t isolate any poets in particular. My advice would be, ‘Challenge yourself.’ In other words, don’t only read the stuff that you know you like. To get a sense of what poetry can do, it’s a good idea to surprise yourself. And if you really want to write, it’s also a good idea to struggle a bit with what this or that poet or poem is on about, what it means to you and why. The effect of this on your own writing will not always be immediately apparent. You won’t necessarily rush off and try writing a poem ‘influenced’ by what you’ve just read. You may, but not necessarily. What may happen is that some fragment, some sentiment or feeling from that poem may pop up in your mind at some future time, perhaps ten, twenty or thirty years later.
Which poetry magazines would
you recommend him or her to subscribe to?
I like Poetry London and the Poetry Trust’s newspaper.
Assuming that this would-be poet showed some promise, would you advise him or her to pursue a "career" in poetry?
I would advise this person to go to poetry readings wherever and whenever you can and judge from that.
If so, what further advice
would you give him or her?
Keep a notebook at all times. Collect thoughts, sounds and phrases. Give yourself time to be alone.
Finally (and extremely hypothetically), you are selected to appear on the hit reality TV show, "Desert Island Poets", where you are marooned on a tropical island for three months with a typewriter and several reams of paper. You are provided with all necessary provisions, but you are only allowed to take three books with you. Your appearance fee is more than you could hope to earn in a decade and the show is so popular that all previous participants have become best-selling poets. So, would you participate? And if so, which three books would you take with you?
I’m a bit of a media tart
anyway, so I’d probably say yes. You’ve made it sound fairly unexploitative…
Three books: Karl Marx ‘The
German Ideology’; Complete Works of Shakespeare; any large collection of poetry
eg the Norton collection.
If my poetry has to be restricted to a single poet, I’d say Carl Sandburg.
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