Author: Clare Best

I am Clare Best – poet, writer, librettist, teacher of creative writing. My first career was as a fine bookbinder. I've also worked as a bookseller, and for many years as an editor. Poetry publications: Treasure Ground (HappenStance 2009), Excisions (Waterloo Press 2011), Breastless (Pighog Press 2011), CELL (Frogmore Press 2015), Springlines (Little Toller 2017), Each Other (Waterloo Press 2019), End of Season / Fine di stagione (Frogmore Press 2022), Beyond the Gate (Worple Press, 2023). Memoir: The Missing List (Linen Press 2018).

Putting up Springlines at Glyndebourne

Yesterday was a long day – but thank goodness the rain more or less held off and so we could get the paintings (some of them are huge) and all the text panels into the Stalls Gallery without too much trouble. Hanging the larger paintings proved quite a challenge for Steve, partly because he had to be…

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Springlines exhibition at Glyndebourne from 8 July to 30 August

Mary Anne and I are delighted to announce an exhibition in the Stalls Gallery at Glyndebourne from 8 July until the end of the season on 30 August. We’re going to show work from all kinds of watery sites we’ve visited over the past year or two, and there’ll also be a specifically Glyndebourne focus….

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Beyond comfort

I spent Saturday drawing. The idea of drawing holds cosy memories of the art room at school where I loved going but felt guilty because I should have been studying. So why was I outside my comfort zone on Saturday? Partly because I hadn’t put pencil to paper in decades (other than to write) but…

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Touching the Core

‘If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.’ Gospel of St Thomas I thoroughly enjoyed the Self-portrait without Breasts event at Kings College London on February 24th. A huge…

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Event at University of Brighton, 26 Feb 2015

University of Brighton, Arts & Humanities, invites you to a Writers in Residence Salon Thursday 26th February 2015 Boardroom (M2), Grand Parade, BN2 0JY All welcome: free entry, wine and canapés from 5.30 pm discussion on CREATIVE COLLABORATION from 6.30 pm   How do artists from different disciplines approach creative collaboration? How can they identify and overcome…

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The work of waiting

‘The more Susan waited, the more the doorbell didn’t ring. Or the phone.’ Douglas Adams – Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency I’ve always liked Advent – the idea of waiting by preparing. Active waiting. Years ago, when I was waiting and hoping for a baby, I bought a handmade crib in a hilltop town in Provence….

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Mary Anne Aytoun-Ellis’s recent exhibition at Portland Gallery, London

Here’s the text of a review I wrote for Mary Anne’s latest exhibition at Portland Gallery, London, which included a good number of paintings made as part of the Springlines project: Tim Craven, Curator of Art at Southampton City Art Gallery, in his excellent essay at the front of the catalogue, places Aytoun-Ellis’ work firmly…

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