Andrew Fusek-Peters

“Convey an atmosphere in your words that carries the reader far from this world, to the place where imagination sings.”

About Andrew Fusek-Peters

Cities laugh and cry. Leaves and trees have their own stories to tell. Andrew Fusek Peters’ poems take us into a world where everything has a life of its own.

Andrew is also fond of word play, and enjoys taking a pun as a starting point for a poem – as with ‘Hare Piece’ or ‘Guy Forks’. This often produces surreal ideas.

His readings have a musical quality and are also very varied in style. Listen to the lilting rhythms of ‘Leaf’s Lament’ and then the high-energy rap of ‘Dad’.

Andrew uses a wide range of forms including sonnets, haikus, rhyming couplets and free verse.

If Andrew has ever visited your school, you’ll almost certainly remember him. As well as being tallest poet in Britain (he is 6 foot, 8 inches) he usually brings his didgeridoo.

Andrew started writing poetry as a child, partly because his brother did. But he then found it helped him express his feelings after being bullied at school.

Andrew has written 45 books of children’s poems. He often writes with his wife, Polly Peters, and finds it good way to work. He says, “It’s hard to say when one of us ends and the other begins.”

Andrew’s performances are always very musical. As well as reading his poems, he sings, plays the didgeridoo and jaw harp.

Andrew's recording was made on 10 January 2006 at the Audio Workshop, London, and was produced by Richard Carrington.