A bitter-sweet triumph for poet's tribute to the wife he lost

IN choosing Christopher Reid's latest volume of poems for the Costa Poetry Award, the judges called it "a life-affirming collection, full of urgency and feeling".

Having been nominated twice in previous years for the same award it proved third time lucky, although it was perhaps a bitter-sweet moment for the 61-year-old former Hull University lecturer. A Scattering is a tribute to Reid's wife, the actress Lucinda Gane, who many will remember fondly as science teacher Miss Mooney in Grange Hill, and who died in October, 2005.

Although Reid is no stranger to winning awards – he received the Hawthornden Prize for his first collection, Arcadia, and the 2000 Signal Poetry Award for his children's collection, among others – this is the most poignant for the poet. Speaking from his home in London, he admits to having mixed emotions after scooping this latest prize, which puts him in the running for Costa's Book of the Year award.

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"It's complex given what's happened, but at this precise minute I'm feeling pleased."

The poet, who edited The Selected Letters of Ted Hughes, spent two years as professor of creative writing at Hull University before leaving the post last year. It was during his time in Hull that he wrote several of the poems in the collection.

"It's helped me to get my thoughts in order, particularly in terms of registering all the complex emotions one feels after a bereavement," he explains. "But of course I'm a poet so I felt an obligation to write something like this and I think it was the best way of actually being honest with myself about my feelings."

In A Scattering, Reid gives us a moving insight not only into personal grief and loss, but also love. His collection is divided into four parts, the first written during his wife's final illness, and the remainder at various intervals following her death as he comes to terms with the grieving process.

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"It was painful at times, but the book is in four parts and each one, perhaps, represents a different stage of my emotional development following my wife's death. The first section was written while Lucinda was still alive but knew she was going to die, and I wanted her to read something that told her how I felt and also celebrated something of her spirit."

Following his wife's death, from cancer, Reid says it was another six months before he was able to begin writing again.

"I couldn't have forced it and I wanted to write something else and that took me back to her last days in the hospice where she died. The memories were so vivid so it became the obvious thing to write about."

It was then another 12 months before he started piecing together the second half. "I thought I should write some poems about my own experiences as a grieving widower. The thing I most wanted to do was to address her directly, to speak to her and that took a bit of time to find the right voice and the correct pitch. But suddenly one day I thought 'I know how to do it' and perhaps that, too, was another step forward in my emotional recovery."

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Reid sees the four sections of the book as forming a complete circle. "I think the poems do stand for something going on inside me and they helped clarify things to myself and it seems they worked for those who have read them. I received quite a lot of touching letters from people who have gone through something similar and said the poems meant something to them, and that was very gratifying."

He noted that many people who haven't written anything before turn to poetry when some disaster strikes them. "I remember when I was working at Faber and Faber several years ago being really quite surprised by this, although I'm not sure why. Because it does seem as though there's a lingering sense that poetry is important for these occasions and people do naturally turn to the orderliness of poetry when their life is in tumult."

Reid and his wife were married for 28 years until her death and his book is a celebration of life and an elegy. "Although I was grieving there were lots of happy memories to look back on," he says. "My wife had an amazing, vital energy, that was one of her outstanding characteristics, so I could not have written a defeatist book, it would not have been true to her spirit. She was moved by the first section of the book which she was able to read and I think she would have liked it, I hope so."

A Scattering, by Christopher Reid, is published by Arete, priced 7.99. To order it from the Yorkshire Post Bookshop, call free on 0800 0153232 or go online at www.yorkshirepost bookshop. co.uk. Postage and packing is 2.75.