There are eight programmes in this series . Each of the first 6 programmes profiles a different contemporary children’s poet who introduces and then reads a selection of his or her work. From 1969-1972, he was a trainee at the BBC, working in radio drama, and on Play School and Schools Television. He then spent three years at the National Film School, publishing his first book of poetry, Mind Your Own Business, in 1974. This book was not originally written for children, but appeared on Deutsch's children's list, and from that point on, his career was set. Since 1976, he has been writing, performing, teaching, and appearing on radio and television. He also writes regularly for The Guardian. Richmond, John (4 August 2008). "Harold Rosen [obituary]". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 24 April 2017 . Retrieved 12 December 2016. Flood (20 May 2021). "Michael Rosen condemns 'loathsome and antisemitic' manipulated image". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 5 April 2023 . Retrieved 5 April 2023. You can also become a spontaneous supporter with a one-time donation in any amount: GIVE NOW BITCOIN DONATION

Michael Rosen - poems - Poem Hunter Michael Rosen - poems - Poem Hunter

In 1993, Rosen gained an MA in Children's Literature from the University of Reading and subsequently gained a PhD from the University of North London. [17] [18] Margaret Meek Spencer supervised his work and continued to support him throughout her life. [19] Rosen recording his poem "The Listening Lions" in 2014 Children's Laureate Michael Rosen receives Honorary Doctorate of Letters". Uel.ac.uk. 22 January 2008. Archived from the original on 8 January 2012 . Retrieved 23 February 2013. Steerpike (5 January 2022). "Michael Rosen faces defamation lawsuit". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 5 April 2023 . Retrieved 5 April 2023. Ouch. It doesn't get any easier when you learn what makes Rosen most sad. His son Eddie died when he was 18. "I loved him very, very much," Rosen says, "but he died anyway." Perring, Christian (15 May 2005). "Michael Rosen's Sad Book". Metapsychology. 9 (19). Archived from the original on 13 March 2007 . Retrieved 30 June 2007.

Sometime around the age of twelve and thirteen I began to get a sense that I liked writing, liked trying out different kinds of writing, I tried writing satirical poems about people I knew.

Michael Rosen review – a survivor’s manual Getting Better by Michael Rosen review – a survivor’s manual

Glynn, Paul (28 June 2023). "Michael Rosen 'honoured' to win PEN Pinter Prize". BBC News . Retrieved 2 July 2023.

Grief, when it comes, is nothing like we expect it to be,” Joan Didion wrote after losing the love of her life. “The people we most love do become a physical part of us,” Meghan O’Rourke observed in her magnificent memoir of loss, “ingrained in our synapses, in the pathways where memories are created.” Those wildly unexpected dimensions of grief and the synaptic traces of love are what celebrated British children’s book writer and poet Michael Rosen confronted when his eighteen-year-old son Eddie died suddenly of meningitis. Never-ending though the process of mourning may be, Rosen set out to exorcise its hardest edges and subtlest shapes five years later in Michael Rosen’s Sad Book ( public library) — an immensely moving addition to the finest children’s books about loss, illustrated by none other than the great Quentin Blake. This is as much a book about finding the words to express our troubles as it is about the author’s life and Rosen, who is professor of children’s literature at Goldsmiths, University of London, is a generous teacher. We feel his doubts, his uncertainty and his curiosity. “I’m right at the very edge of what I understand,” he says, but in writing, in sharing, in striving for meaning, he offers readers a lifeline, and shows them they are not going through it alone. The aim of Getting Better is not simply to lay out his despairing moments but to show a path out of them: “Most of the book is me saying, ‘This is what I’m doing. Why don’t you give it a try?’” If the book and the play stop short of spelling out the failures of government that contribute to the suffering of girls like Shona, the message of a failing system is implicit. Is Rosen hopeful things can change?

Michael Rosen’s stories for life: The happy, silly, and sad Michael Rosen’s stories for life: The happy, silly, and sad

There is no fix, but he details the slow process of finding a voice that allows him to talk about Eddie, aided by a child asking him a question about his son at a talk. He subsequently wrote about the experience in Sad Book (2004), illustrated by Quentin Blake. More than 20 years on, he finds that Eddie is “there, he’s in me, he’s around me … Is he ‘at rest’ in me and with me? Yes, I think it’s something like that.” After graduating from Wadham College, Oxford, in 1969, Rosen became a graduate trainee at the BBC. Among the work that he did while there in the 1970s was presenting a series on BBC Schools television called WALRUS (Write And Learn, Read, Understand, Speak). He was also scriptwriter on the children's reading series Sam on Boff's Island. But Rosen found working for the corporation frustrating: "Their view of 'educational' was narrow. The machine had decided this was the direction to take. Your own creativity was down the spout."Letters | Vote for hope and a decent future". The Guardian. 3 December 2019. Archived from the original on 3 December 2019 . Retrieved 4 December 2019. Sandhu, Sukhdev (23 September 2017). "So They Call You Pisher! by Michael Rosen review – Communism, Clive James and attitude". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 April 2023 . Retrieved 17 April 2023. Rosen said that the book arose after a group of children asked him questions about his son's death and they were able to discuss it in a "matter-of-fact" way. [2] It begins with a picture of Rosen looking happy, with text explaining that he is sad and only pretending to be happy. The book frequently uses a disconnection between text and image to communicate the complex feelings of grief. [3] Blake, who has previously illustrated Sylvia Plath’s little-known children’s book and many of Roald Dahl’s stories, brings his unmistakably expressive sensibility to the book, here and there concretizing Rosen’s abstract words into visual vignettes that make you wonder what losses of his own he is holding in the mind’s eye as he draws. Just wanted to say how brilliant you were when you came to my old school. I am using a few of your poems for a poetry anthology for school. Thanks so Much!