Penelope Shuttle Readings
‘The capacious and playful latest from Shuttle (Lyonesse) offers twin poles of memory and imagination, taking place in part among the scenes, recollections, and visions of childhood […] She captures the blending of love and loss, of personal grief and environmental anxiety, that comes with growing up […] Quietly witty and slyly allusive, this dispenses poignant reflections on the poet’s personal history.’ – Publishers Weekly, on History of the Child
Penelope Shuttle's latest collection History of the Child is published by Bloodaxe in February 2026. History of the Child is a highly evocative exploration of childhood, memory, and imagination, blending personal and historical perspectives. The book’s themes include parenting, grief, nature, emotional recovery and connections to the past, guided by the idea of childhood as a transformative and rebellious space.
Her previous collection Redgrove’s Wife was shortlisted for both the Forward Prize and the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2006. Sandgrain and Hourglass (2010) is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Her retrospective, Unsent: New & Selected Poems 1980-2012 (Bloodaxe Books, 2012), drew on ten collections published over three decades plus the title-collection, Unsent. Her later collections from Bloodaxe are Will you walk a little faster? (2017), her double collection Lyonesse (2021), longlisted for the Laurel Prize 2022, and History of the Child (2026). Heath, a collaboration about Hounslow Heath with John Greening, was published by Nine Arches in 2016.
First published as a novelist, her fiction includes All the Usual Hours of Sleeping (1969), Wailing Monkey Embracing a Tree (1973) and Rainsplitter in the Zodiac Garden (1977). Penelope Shuttle has lived in Cornwall since 1970, is the widow of the poet Peter Redgrove, and has a grown-up daughter Zoe, who works in the field of sustainable energy.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Wednesday 11 February, 6.30pm
An evening of poetry with Penelope Shuttle and Hilary Davies
Falmouth Library, Municipal Buildings, The Moor, Falmouth, Cornwall, TR11 2RT
Falmouth Poetry Group invites you to enjoy an evening of poetry with readings from celebrated poets Hilary Davies and Penelope Shuttle. Both Hilary and Penelope have links to Falmouth and are delighted to share new work from their latest books in the Library space as we mark the 130th anniversary of the Municipal Building this year.
Free to attend.
Tuesday 24 February, 7pm - YouTube
Online launch reading by Polly Clark, Cathy Galvin and Penelope Shuttle
Join Bloodaxe for this launch event for new February titles by Polly Clark, Cathy Galvin and Penelope Shuttle. All three poets will be celebrating the publication of their new books by reading live and discussing their work with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley.
This free Bloodaxe launch event will be streamed on YouTube Live on this YouTube page: https://youtube.com/live/XA38CZZs9yE
PAST EVENTS
Thursday 7 April 2022 (online)
Lyonesse: An Interview For Fire River Poets with Penelope Shuttle
Penelope Shuttle read and was interviewed in a Fire River Poets online event. A transcript of the interview can be read here.
Tuesday 22 June 2021, 7pm BST, joint live-streamed launch event hosted by Bloodaxe Books
This wonderful joint launch reading by Penelope Shuttle, A.B. Jackson and John Challis celebrating the publication of their new poetry collections was live streamed on 22 June 2021. The audience was taken on a journey under the sea to the submerged land of Lyonesse with Penelope Shuttle, over the ocean with A B Jackson's The Voyage of St Brendan, and both underground and overground in London with John Challis in his debut The Resurrectionists.
The event was hosted by editor Neil Astley from his home in Northumberland. Penelope joined from her home in Falmouth, John from Whitley Bay, and Scottish poet A B Jackson from his home in Leeds. Their collections are all published on 24 June 2021 by Bloodaxe Books - all three are 'making something new out of things that have been lost', as Penelope put it.
John Challis read first in each set, followed by Penelope, then A B Jackson. The readings were followed by discussion and Q&A with the online audience. All three books explore the past in one form or another - 'archaeology by verse', according to one audience member.
Thursday 10 June 2021, 9am, Wenlock Poetry Breakfast
Penelope Shuttle, A B Jackson, Susan Wicks, Imtiaz Dharker, Fleur Adock & David Constantine
Penelope Shuttle took part in a special event on 10 June 2021 celebrating Bloodaxe Books, hosted by Poetry Breakfast (Zoom bookclub event hosted by Anna Dreda of Wenlock Books) – together with fellow Bloodaxe poets A B Jackson, Susan Wicks and Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry winners David Constantine, Fleur Adcock and Imtiaz Dharker. Bloodaxe Books was Poetry Breakfast's first guest publisher.
The event itself is not available on YouTube, but a blog featuring all six poets and the three poems they read from their new and recent collections is here.
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Penelope Shuttle was a guest on the Irish podcast Books for Breakfast, hosted by poets Peter Sirr and Enda Wyley, on 10 June 2021. She was talking to Peter about her 13th collection Lyonesse, and read four poems from the book. Penelope is introduced at 23:00. Listen to the interview here.
An in-depth interview with Penelope Shuttle about Lyonesse is online at Wombwell Rainbow Book Reviews here. Penelope was speaking to Paul Brookes.
Lyonesse was featured as The Observer's Poetry Book of the Month for July 2021.
‘Combining two collections in one, the veteran poet immerses us in a mythical kingdom in this extraordinary flow of work’ Read the review in full here.
Penelope Shuttle's 'wonderful 13th collection' Lyonesse was reviewed in The Guardian here.
Lyonesse was reviewed in the second of Mab Jones’ round ups of new independently-published poetry in the Welsh magazine Buzz. Read online here.
‘Fluid, thoughtful, and full of imagination, this is quite simply a must-read.’ – Mab Jones, Buzz Magazine
[26 May 2021]
