No Way To Make A Living is a sociological space about work, generating discussion and exchange on what work, paid or unpaid, is like in today’s world

Early in the film of Blake Morrison’s mem­oir And When Did You Last See Your Father (dir Anand Tucker, 2007), Blake (Colin Firth) accepts an award for his poetry (it might be that the defin­i­tion of ‘real’ work is that it’s the sort of activ­ity you’d never attend an award cere­mony to mark).

At the risk of get­ting sen­ti­mental, I’d like to say thank-you to my wife, Kathy. Not only for all her sup­port and encour­age­ment, but because she asked me to men­tion her.

My dad always used to say, and I’m sure he’ll say it again before the night’s out,

“Being a writer, in par­tic­u­lar a poet, is all well and good. But it’s no way to make a living.”

Of course, as in most other things, he’s abso­lutely right.