Gillian Allnutt Readings
'…there’s no better poet alive in England, and no better poet of England, either. […] At its best – which is most of it – Allnutt’s poetry is lovely, strange and wise. These are profound and beautiful meditations on ordinary lives and the miracle of everyday language.' – Victoria Moul, The Times Literary Supplement
Gillian Allnutt's tenth collection Lode was published by Bloodaxe Books in May 2025. It was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize 2025. Scroll down to see TS Eliot Prize films of Gillian talking about and reading from Lode.
Lode was launched with in-person readings around North-East England, where Gillian Allnutt has lived for the past thirty years. Her reading at Berwick Literary Festival was filmed - see video below.
The lode in Gillian Allnutt’s title picks up on two of the many meanings of the word. A lode can be a course, a way, a journey; also a road, a lane. Her collection traces a journey through time, the time of her own life and of our lives, since the Second World War. Lode also means guidance, here the guidance afforded by the continuity and relative stability – economic, cultural, spiritual – of Britain’s postwar years, the setting of the first part of the book.
Gillian Allnutt's earlier collections Nantucket and the Angel and Lintel were both shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Poems from these collections are included in her Bloodaxe retrospective How the Bicycle Shone: New & Selected Poems (2007), which draws on six published books plus a new collection, Wolf Light, and was a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. Her most recent collections from Bloodaxe are indwelling (2013) and wake (2018), with her tenth collection Lode published in May 2025.
Gillian Allnutt was awarded The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, 2016. The Medal, awarded for excellence in poetry, was made on the basis of her body of work. Her poetry has been published by Bloodaxe Books since 1994.
‘From her first collection published in the early 1980s, Gillian Allnutt’s work has always been in conversation with the natural world and the spiritual life. Her writing roams across centuries, very different histories and lives, and draws together, without excuse or explanation, moments which link across country, class, culture and time. The North is a constant touchstone in her work; canny and uncanny, its hills and coast, its ancient histories and its people. Her poems progress over the years to a kind of synthesis of word-play and meditation. In her work the space between what is offered and what is withheld is every bit as important as what is said. She has the power to comfort and to astonish in equal measure. In her outlook, her imagination, her concerns and her lyric voice she is unique.’ – Dame Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate, for The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry Award Committee 2016
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For reviews in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Tablet, The Little Review, The Times Literary Supplement and more, see: https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?articleid=1506
Gillian Allnutt was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's The Verb on Sunday 22 June 2025. She read and introduced poems from Lode. Available on BBC Sounds here.
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‘...the best poetry collections were both serious and strong. Perhaps that’s down to maturity. Tipped for the T S Eliot Prize, British poetry’s crown, is the 76-year-old British poet Gillian Allnutt […] Deft and lovely, her 10th collection zips between her uncle’s death, fighting in the RAF, to her meeting with Elizabeth II in 2016 (“majestic, merciful, / the moon’s own soul”).’ – The Telegraph, Poetry Books of the Year 2025
'Lode speaks to our confused and chaotic age. [...] In times of noise and bluster, Allnutt makes space for beauty.' – Graeme Richardson, The Sunday Times, choosing Lode as his top Poetry Book of the Year 2025
'Gillian Allnutt’s 10th collection, Lode, plays with time and memory in works that feel prayer-like in their intimacy and simplicity…’ – Rishi Dastidar, The Guardian (The best poetry books of 2025)
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TS ELIOT PRIZE READING
Sunday 18 January 2026, 7pm, Royal Festival Hall, London
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX
TS Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings
Nine of the ten shortlisted poets for this year’s prize read from their work at this prestigious event hosted by poet Ian McMillan, with Stephen Raey standing in for Tom Paulin. Gillian Allnutt read from her shortlisted tenth collection Lode.
An audio recording of the Shortlist Readings will be made available in due course.
FORTHCOMING TS ELIOT PRIZE COVERAGE ON BBC RADIO 4
The Verb: TS Eliot Prize Poets, BBC Radio 4, forthcoming Sunday 25 January 2026, 5.10pm
Extracts from the TS Eliot Prize Readings at London's Royal Festival Hall on 18 January hosted by Ian McMillan will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s special TS Eliot Prize edition of The Verb on 25 January 2026. Gillian Allnutt read from her tenth collection Lode.
‘Join Ian McMillan for a celebration of remarkable poets and poetry as he presents highlights of the annual T.S. Eliot Prize readings, recorded in front of an audience at London's Southbank. The poets featured this year are: Gillian Allnutt, Isabelle Baafi, Catherine-Esther Cowie, Paul Farley, Vona Groarke, Sarah Howe, Nick Makoha, Tom Paulin, Natalie Shapero, and Karen Solie.’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002qgmp
PAST EVENTS
Reading at Berwick Literary Festival 2025
Gillian Allnutt read from her tenth collection Lode at Berwick Literary Festival on Saturday 11 October 2025.
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An interview with Gillian Allnutt was featured in MONK Magazine in October 2021 and is available online here.
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[20 June 2025]
