Wes Magee
“Poetry is two four-letter words... hard work!”
About Wes Magee
There’s a great deal of variety in Wes’s work – you never know if you’re going to be hearing a story from the school gates or having your bones chilled by a bloodcurdling rhyme full of spooky sounds and ghostly figures. Wes is a wonderful storyteller, with lots of his poems using rhyme and a songlike rhythm to tell their tales about all sorts of people, from little boys and girls to chimney sweeps and teachers – real and imaginary.
Wes is often playful but he can be serious too, and in a poem like ‘Until Gran Died’ he tells a sad story about what it feels like to lose someone you love, and how it’s normal to be upset about it.
Wes is a natural performer. Whether he’s making ghostly raps rattle off his tongue to great effect, or slowing down to tell a more day-to-day story, he can throw in an accent or even get his fingers clicking to bring the listener along. You might even find yourself having to join in!
Wes is a real craftsman when it comes to his writing and they’re full of rhymes and strong rhythms. He writes lots of different sorts of poems, from narratives to raps, ballads to free verse.
Wes was born in Scotland and he used to work as a teacher before he became a full time writer. It was actually one of his pupils who helped to get him started. They were unhappy because there weren’t any poems about dinosaurs so Wes tried to write some himself, not realising that years later he’d be writing and reading his poems for children all over the world.
Wes now lives in the North York Moors and writes his poems in a hut at the bottom of his garden. When he’s not in the hut and hard at work he is regularly on tour, taking his Poetry Show to schools and theatres around the country.
Wes's recording was made on 7 May 2003 at the Audio Workshop, London and was produced by Anne Rosenfeld.
Featured in the Archive
Selected Bibliography
Deep In The Green Wood , Caboodle Books, 2015
Here Come The Creatures , Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2013
So, You Want To Be A Wizard? , Caboodle Books, 2010
The Boneyard Rap, Hodder, 2003
The Very Best of Wes Magee, Macmillan, 2001
The Phantom's Fang-tastic Show, Oxford University Press, 2000
The Witch's Brew, Cambridge University Press, 1989
Morning Break, Cambridge University Press, 1989
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