About Me

About Me

Gardener, Writer

A former English teacher and bookseller, I now work as a self-employed gardener (National Certificate in Horticulture) and write poetry, plays and essays. My writing credits can be viewed here. I have had two poetry books and two poetry pamphlets published by various publishers. I was a co-translator of Alain-Fournier:Poems (Carcanet). I commissioned and edited Four American Poets (The High Window Press) and was a co-editor at The High Window (2016-2018). My essays can be read at the Fortnightly Review. I enjoy cycling, fell-running, sea swimming, dog-walking, jazz, travel, reading, horticulture and garden design.

27.7.21

The saddest thing I ever saw: a poem

 https://www.spectator.co.uk/poem/the-saddest-thing-i-ever-saw

The saddest thing I ever saw

was a down-and-out 

in awe of a pencil salesman

in a café, midtown Manhattan.

Handsome like a movie star, 

the salesman turns on his sales patter,

speaking loudly peachy keens 

and aw shucks and I am fine here Sandra 

in The Big Apple, but honey

could you look in my

and the street guy’s envy

like a furnace, his eyes

like beads in a forge,

and then it happens...

just as sales talk goes the way

of big smiles and I gotta go Sandra,

the balding bum, in a worn-out windbreaker,

soiled loafers, shirt open 

at the navel, stands up, walks across 

to the salesman’s table, and says: 

I am going to be an actor.


- Anthony Costello


Published in The Spectator Magazine, July, 2021