Ruth Sharman and Stephen Payne

Ruth Sharman is an English poet based in Bath. Her poems have appeared in a number of anthologies, national newspapers and magazines, and on Radio 4.

Her new collection, Rain Tree, charts the poet’s journey as she revisits the India of her childhood, taking her from the smog-laden streets of Chennai to mountains older than the Himalayas and the dwindling evergreen forests beloved by her naturalist father – an odyssey that delivers both less and more than she is looking for.

Stephen Payne is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Bath. He joins us to discuss his second collection The Windmill Proof. 

Here are poems as games and provocations, where fun with an idea (or even a geometrical shape) can slip seamlessly into matters of the heart. Payne is fired by the white-hot joy of language — its sounds, its speed, its spin. And he’s on a mission to share that joy.

Join us for an evening in the bookshop with Sharman and Payne to celebrate their work.