Morden Tower Celebration, Newcastle, June 2024

How nice to come across these photos of the 60th anniversary celebration of the Morden Tower readings, which took place last June in Newcastle-on-Tyne. This legendary reading series, founded by the inimitable Tom Pickard in 1964, has rightly entered the annals of European letters, having featured such luminaries as Allen Ginsberg and Basil Bunting. It was a privilege, then, to be invited to read at this commemorative event, which, it being Bloomsday, took place in Newcastle's Irish Centre a mere stone's throw from the famous Tower itself. And it was a pleasure to read alongside legendary Irish poets Trevor Joyce, Fergal Gaynor, Ellen Dillon and James Cummins.

The legendary Tower glimpsed through rain

The celebration, which lasted long into evening, hits its stride some Irish traditional Tuens played by a local Newcastle family

With Tom Pickard himself and esteemed poet James Cummins

The bridges of Tyneside