He understands, for example, the difficulty of writing truly free verse, has learnt that form can engender content, and appreciates the art that conceals art. There are established poets who write as if none of this has occurred to them.Unfortunately, Fry often undermines his best efforts. Nevertheless, there are enough insights in the book to suggest that it was written out of Fry’s own practice. Lest we confuse him with Auberon Waugh, who campaigned for “proper” poetry to so little effect in the pages of The Literary Review, Fry does acknowledge an enjoyment of Modernists such as Eliot and Pound; but there is deliberate Blimpishness here, archly reinforced by the book jacket’s illustration of a quill and ink-pot.
Stephen Fry’s own jokey verses describe the various forms – “The TERZA RIMA mode is very fine, / Great Dante used it for his famous text; / It rhymes the words in every other line” – but he coyly withholds his own poetry (rather than emulating Charles Atlas, who advertised the success of his regimen with his own physique). In case we miss the point, Fry brandishes critical terms like “arse-dribble” for emphasis. The cure Fry proposes is a return to the poetry of traditional metres and forms; his book runs through the options, pausing to set the reader a series of uninspiring exercises. For Stephen Fry, too many of them “default to a rather inward, placid and bloodless response to the world”, producing “dreary, self-indulgent, randomly lineated drivel”.

To them, she was a writer who worked at Pullens caf?nd restaurant in Herne Hill in order to pay her bills. But now Ms Zadok, buoyed by her Whitbread prize nomination last week, has left waitressing behind – and her former colleagues are determined to join her.. Ahow-to manual for would-be versifiers, The Ode Less Travelled will annoy some poets, and not just because its sales are bound to outstrip their own efforts. To the customers she served in the small south London caf?Rachel Zadok was just a waitress Her colleagues knew differently. The woman lets out a dramatic sigh: “Well, I asked for the scallops as a main course.” She’s incredulous..

“Is that it?” The woman at table 25 leans back and snorts, giving her friends room to peer at the two scallops staring back at them like boiled eyes They shake their heads and tut, then turn to me expectantly

“Well it is a starter, madam,” I explain. The Christian content, rather cleverly, provides an antidote to Howard Brenton’s polemical play Paul (in the Cottesloe), while the climatic ecclesiastical chorusing of “His mother is light” turns into an overwhelming celebration of maternal love here on earth.k.bassett independent.co.ukTo 4 Feburary, 020 7452 3000. However, the final progression towards long-lost parents regained – after rebellious and redemptive actions – is exquisitely uplifting, with interwoven music from Handel’s Messiah performed with an onstage choir and chamber orchestra. Grim occurrences include death by hanging and ghostly, wailing puppet babies buried in the woods. Justine Mitchell’s Melissa has lovely tenderness combined with an independent spirit, and Paul Ritter is truly chilling and creepy as the child-trading Otis Gardiner.This show is not for the easily upset.

Alexander, as a boy, is beautifully played by Anna Madeley with a prim dignity and delicately humorous touches. Also, there are a few purple patches in the dialogue and some ingredients feel derivative, with notably Dickensian elements and more than a trace of Quasimodo about the drooling simpleton, Jack Tarlton’s Meshak.Yet Edmundson and almost all Still’s cast manage to make the complex storylines and urgent acceleration both lucid and thrilling. Romantic attachments, passions and pain are acted with a sensitivity and a heartfelt directness that make them acutely touching.Indeed, after its subdued start, this production becomes enthralling, making you care about or fear Gavin’s characters with a remarkable intensity. With effortless fluidity, this setting can be a church nave with organ loft, or a forest surrounding a mansion, or a London wharf bristling with masts.