Gillian Allnutt's Lode reviewed in The Guardian & Telegraph
'Constraint and freedom, protection and danger – in Lode, Allnutt brings the full force of history to bear upon the words she weighs and, under these pressures, she holds diamonds in her hands. [...] There is plenty of white space in Lode, but one does not have to dig too far beneath its surface to strike magnetite, and then the forces of attraction pull everything together. Lode looks small – but it’s huge.' – John Field, TS Eliot Prize Reviewer
Gillian Allnutt's tenth collection Lode was published by Bloodaxe Books in May 2025. It is on the shortlist for the TS Eliot Prize 2025. Scroll down to watch TS Eliot videos of Gillian talking about Lode and reading poems from the collection.
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 and shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize. Lode includes the poem ‘Crabapple moon’, which was Highly Commended by the Judges of the Forward Prizes 2025.
Gillian Allnutt's poetry has been published by Bloodaxe Books since 1994. She 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. In 2025 she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
‘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, on behalf of The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry Award Committee 2016
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Gillian Allnutt was the featured poet in the TS Eliot Prize Newsletter of 16 October 2025. With a poem, review extracts and a specially commissioned review by John Field. Read here.
Gillian contributed a lovely piece about writing to the Poetry School’s Writers’ Notes feature for the 2025 TS Eliot Prize shortlist. Read the feature here.
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PODCAST INTERVIEW WITH GILLIAN ALLNUTT
The Poems We Made Along The Way, Episode 36, Gillian Allnutt: An exercise in truthfulness, Monday 1 December 2025
An in-depth interview with Gillian Allnutt is featured on The Poems We Made Along the Way of 1 December 2025. She was speaking to the podcast host Gregory Kearns about her work, in particular her tenth collection Lode. This is one of a series of interviews with poets whose collections are on the shortlist for the TS Eliot Prize 2025.
‘On today’s episode of The Poems We Made Along the Way Gregory Kearns speaks to Gillian Allnutt about reading poems out loud during the drafting stage, writing persona poetry, and hating punctuation.’
Available on Spotify below, and on other platforms.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6UFMWreF1ScBVcUSfEgLNR
POETRY BOOKS OF THE YEAR
The Sunday Times, Poetry Books of the Year, Sunday 30 November 2025
Gillian Allnutt's tenth collection Lode was chosen by poetry reviewer Graeme Richardson as his Poetry Book of the Year in The Sunday Times of 30 November 2025. He also chose Vidyan Ravinthiran's Forward Prize-winning third collection Avidyā as one of his poetry choices.
'Silence is prized, with more space on the page than text. Like Stevie Smith, she can write with a child’s-eye view (as in 'Berthe') that is moving and strange. Lode speaks to our confused and chaotic age. [...] In times of noise and bluster, Allnutt makes space for beauty.' – Graeme Richardson, The Sunday Times, on Lode, his Poetry Book of the Year 2025
In print. Available online by subscription.
https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/best-books-2025-new-christmas-fiction-q6fclgvvr
The Telegraph, Books of the Year: Poetry, Saturday 15 November 2025
Gillian Allnutt’s collection Lode was included in Poetry Books of the Year section of The Telegraph’s greatest books of 2025 feature of 15 November 2025 as chosen by their literary editors Cal Revely-Calder and Lucy Thynne.
‘...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
In print 15 November 2025. Available online by subscription.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/best-books-of-2025/#poetry
Lode was reviewed as Jeremy Wikeley’s Poetry Book of the Month in May 2025. Available online by subscription.
TS ELIOT PRIZE REVIEW
TS Eliot Prize Newsletter, Thursday 16 October 2025
Gillian Allnutt was the Poet in Focus in the TS Eliot Prize e-newsletter of 16 October. Her poem ‘Mask’ was featured, and there were links to Readers’ Notes for Lode and an excellent review of the collection by John Field.
'Constraint and freedom, protection and danger – in Lode, Allnutt brings the full force of history to bear upon the words she weighs and, under these pressures, she holds diamonds in her hands. [...] There is plenty of white space in Lode, but one does not have to dig too far beneath its surface to strike magnetite, and then the forces of attraction pull everything together. Lode looks small – but it’s huge.' – John Field, TS Eliot Prize Reviewer
The review is available in full here: https://tseliot.com/prize/work/lode/#review
ONLINE REVIEW COVERAGE FOR LODE
The High Window, online 3 October 2025
Gillian Allnutt’s tenth collection Lode was given an excellent review at the top of the October 2025 review section in the online quarterly review of poetry The High Window.
‘This is her 10th collection, showing work that becomes ever more closely focussed, not only on her immediate surroundings but on connections — both material and spiritual — to a larger world. [...] In recent collections Allnutt’s poetry has settled into a close and quiet attentiveness to the minutiae of life, and how this informs our relationship with things of the spirit. She is writing of herself, of her own observed experience, but this expands to become universal. This is in sharp contrast to much of what is published in the third decade of the twenty-first century and we should treasure her work, reading it slowly and giving it the contemplation it deserves.’ – D.A.Prince, The High Window
https://thehighwindowpress.com/2025/10/03/the-high-window-reviews-date/
REVIEW COVERAGE FOR LODE
The Northumbrian, August-September 2025
Gillian Allnutt’s tenth collection Lode was given an excellent review in the August-September 2025 issue of the glossy regional magazine The Northumbrian.
‘This latest collection from the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry winner unfolds as a triptych: beginning with war and its aftermath, moving through the strange terrain of the Covid era, and arriving in an unsettled present. The poems draw deeply from the spiritual and natural worlds, as well as the lives of the poet and those closest to her. These are spare words, minimal and restrained. […] And Lode? A journey, a seam of buried ore. Something discovered, uncovered – gleaming quietly, like this collection.’ – Jane Pikett, The Northumbrian
In print only.
The Times Literary Supplement, Friday 25 July 2025
Gillian Allnutt’s tenth collection Lode was given a brilliant review by Victoria Moul in the TLS of 25 July 2025.
'…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
Almost all of the review is available to view without subscription. Just the final paragraph is missing, which is quoted above.
https://www.the-tls.com/regular-features/in-brief/lode-gillian-allnutt-book-review-victoria-moul
ONLINE REVIEW COVERAGE
Write Out Loud, online 2 September 2025
Lode was well reviewed online in Write Out Loud on 2 September 2025.
‘The ‘lode’ is a journey in time, our time as well as that of the poet. It is also the guidance and solace that is to be found in scripture, the message of the medieval mystics that ‘all will be well’, and the restorative power of the natural world.’ – Neil Leadbeater, Write Out Loud
Read in full online here.
INTERVIEW WITH GILLIAN ALLNUTT IN NORTH EAST LIVING MAGAZINE
North East Living, My North: Gillian Allnutt, July 2025
Gillian Allnutt was interviewed for the full-page ‘My North’ feature in the July 2025 issue of the glossy regional magazine North East Living. Gillian has lived in the former pit village of Esh Winning, County Durham, for the past three decades. The middle section of her new collection Lode is set in County Durham.
For this feature, Gillian Allnutt spoke about her earliest memories of her childhood in Newcastle, about her poetry and what inspires her, and about her love of the North East. The interview also ran in the Durham Advertiser of 7 August 2025.
'I have to let the poems write themselves – just give them space and let them get on with it. They know more than I do.' – Gillian Allnutt
‘The County Durham poet's new collection [Lode] traces a journey through time, the time of her own life and of our lives since the Second World War’
In print. Register to receive free access to the online edition here.
GUARDIAN POEM OF THE WEEK FEATURE
The Guardian, Poem of the Week, online Monday 23 June 2025
Gillian Allnutt's poem 'The Song of Arachnid' from her tenth collection Lode was discussed in detail by Carol Rumens in her online Poem of the Week column in The Guardian of 23 June 2025.
‘A generous and warm ecofeminist vision of the labours of motherhood’
INTERVIEW WITH GILLIAN ALLNUTT ON BBC RADIO 4
The Verb, BBC Radio 4, Sunday 22 June 2025, 5.10pm
Gillian Allnutt was a guest on BBC Radio 4’s The Verb on 22 June 2025. She was talking to host Ian McMillan about her tenth collection Lode and read several poems from the book.
Gillian read her poem ‘Audience’ twice at Ian McMillan’s request ‘because it’s so short and so beautiful’. She also read and introduced her poems ‘Azuma Meditation’, ‘Solitude’ and ‘Roughage’, the latter being one of 40 haiku she wrote in the months before lockdown.
‘Ian McMillan is joined by Harriet Walter, Jason Singh and Gillian Allnutt. Plus glacier poetry with Andri Snaer Magnason and Manjushree Thapa.[...] Poet Gillian Allnutt was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal in 2016 - and her new collection Lode has been celebrated for its 'indelible images'. Gillian reads a poem about meeting the Queen, in which the word 'plimsoll' plays a surprising part, and another poem in which she invents the word 'ditheridoo'.’
The programme remains available on BBC Sounds. Gillian features from 22:45.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002dz3y
ONLINE REVIEW COVERAGE FOR LODE & MARRATIDE
New Writing North, New and Recent Poetry from the North, Summer 2025
Gillian Allnutt’s tenth collection Lode was given an excellent brief review at the top of Will Mackie’s New and Recent Poetry from the North feature for Summer 2025, which went online on New Writing North’s website on 20 June. The late William Martin’s Marratide: Selected Poems was also featured. The two books were launched together in Newcastle at the Lit & Phil and in Durham at St Chad's College Chapel.
‘Lode is the new collection by Gillian Allnutt, a poet whose extraordinary and elegant work is deeply placed within the North. Lode is a personal journey, much of it taking place in County Durham, where Gillian Allnutt has lived for decades. Her latest collection is a landmark work full of insight, observation and learning, taking us deep into her unique poetic world.’ – Will Mackie, New Writing North (New and Recent Poetry from the North)
https://newwritingnorth.com/journal/new-and-recent-poetry-from-the-north-summer-2025/
Lode was reviewed by Paul Short on his The Book Bag blog on 22 June 2025. Read online here.
REVIEW COVERAGE FOR LODE
The Tablet, Saturday 21 June 2025
A review of Gillian Allnutt’s tenth collection Lode was included in Camille Ralphs’ poetry round-up in The Tablet of 21 June.
‘…Gillian Allnutt is humble, minimal: her quiet work has often gone unnoticed by contemporary town-criers (though it bagged the Queen’s Gold Medal in 2016). Allnutt has been writing for some decades, and deservedly possesses a devoted following. Her latest volume, Lode, will feel familiar to long-time readers: here we find God, small things, anchoritic loneness, history, the North; and a simple, firm poetic texture, short lines and glinting abstractions in strawbeds of solidity.’ – Camille Ralphs, The Tablet
In print in the 21 June 2025 issue. Also available online - register to read for free: https://www.thetablet.co.uk/books/poetry-that-is-tender-humble-perfectly-judged/
The Little Review, Issue 1, Summer 2025
Gillian Allnutt’s tenth collection Lode was very well reviewed in the inaugural issue of The Little Review – a new pocket-sized poetry journal founded by former Telegraph poetry editor Tristram Fane Saunders.
'Allnutt's power is in her restraint. [...] The last line of verse in the collection is 'World without edge'; a fresh doxology for a still unknowable modern world, and the perfect final note for a quietly boundless collection that confirms Allnutt as one of the best English poets writing today.' – Mary Anne Clarke, The Little Review, on Lode
In print only.
https://www.thelittlereview.co.uk/
POETRY BOOK OF THE MONTH REVIEW IN THE TELEGRAPH
The Telegraph, Poetry Book of the Month, Saturday 24 May 2025
Gillian Allnutt’s tenth collection Lode was very well reviewed as Jeremy Wikeley’s Poetry Book of the Month for May 2025 in The Telegraph. His review appeared online on 16 May illustrated with a photograph of Queen Elizabeth II presenting Gillian Allnutt with The Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry 2016 at Buckingham Palace in 2017. The article was published in print in the Review supplement on Saturday 24 May under the standfirst 'Gillian Allnutt's work is deft, disarming and often devastating'.
‘...plain speech made devastating. [...] Allnutt’s poems move between playfulness and austerity, eccentricity and anonymity. […] this latest book may yet make her a lodestar for more readers, if they find their way to it. They should.’ – Jeremy Wikeley, The Telegraph (on Lode, his Poetry Book of the Month for May 2025)
The online edition is available to read in full without subscription. It currently appears at the top of their ‘The best poetry books of 2025 so far’ feature.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/best-poetry-books-reviews/
REVIEW IN THE GUARDIAN
The Guardian, Poetry Books of the Month, Saturday 3 May 2025
Gillian Allnutt’s tenth collection Lode was well reviewed as part of Rishi Dastidar’s Poetry Books of the Month feature for May 2025 in The Guardian.
'There are some indelible images in the poems […] More than this, Allnutt suggests there is a space beyond time that we can sometimes glimpse, and perhaps even gain comfort from…’ – Rishi Dastidar, The Guardian (Poetry Books of the Month)
The review appeared in print on 3 May in The Guardian’s Saturday magazine. Available online via The Guardian's website.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/may/02/the-best-recent-poetry-review-roundup
2021 INTERVIEW WITH GILLIAN ALLNUTT IN MONK
MONK magazine, Issue 2, October 2021, online 5 April 2022
An eight-page interview with Gillian Allnutt, focusing on poetry and spirituality, featured in the second issue of MONK, an international magazine exploring creativity and spirituality. The article appeared in print in October 2021, and was posted online on 5 April 2022. It was illustrated with a specially-taken photo of Gillian at her home in County Durham, and a double-page photograph of Durham Cathedral. The article was entitled ‘Under Northern Skies: Divinations of a Warrior Poet’.
The magazine also featured Gillian's new poem about Mary Magdalene, commissioned by BBC Radio 2 in Spring 2021, which is now published in Lode (2025).
https://monk.gallery/interviews/gillian-allnutt-under-northern-skies-divinations-of-a-warrior-poet/
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Reading at Berwick Literary Festival 2025
Gillian Allnutt read from her tenth collection Lode at Berwick Literary Festival on Saturday 11 October 2025.
[02 May 2025]
