So They Call You Pisher!: A Memoir

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The 74-year-old writer is very much alive on Zoom where, after a few technical hitches, he appears on screen seemingly as energetic as ever, his conversation an engaging ragbag of rants and anecdotes, ranging from King Lear to last night’s football match, even if names escape him occasionally. In real life, as has often been remarked, Rosen resembles the BFG, or at least Quentin Blake’s giant, all long limbs, extravagant ears and messy lines. “You’d have to ask Quentin. He’s never said: ‘By the way you are the BFG’,” he says of the illustrator with whom he has collaborated since 1974. “I think he was partly inspired by Dahl himself.” No,” he says. “It’s different. Sometimes he’s wearing clothes I’ve forgotten about, so I wake up and go, ‘Oh my God, I remember that shirt!’” Charlie] would hold his nose high in the air and take long deep sniffs of the gorgeous chocolatey smell all around him.Oh, how he loved that smell!And, oh, how he wished he could go inside the factory and see what it was like!' Rosen, Michael (4 March 2006). "What's a story for?". Socialist Worker (1990). Archived from the original on 21 March 2006. Middlesex Lecture". Michael Rosen. 14 September 2017. Archived from the original on 4 March 2021 . Retrieved 15 January 2021.

In August 2010, Rosen contributed to an e-book collection of political poems entitled Emergency Verse – Poetry in Defence of the Welfare State, edited by Alan Morrison. [47] a b "About Michael Rosen". MichaelRosen.co.uk. 29 November 2016. Archived from the original on 25 March 2019 . Retrieved 5 August 2021. Rosen, Michael (2016). "These are the Hands by Michael Rosen". Scottish Poetry Library. Archived from the original on 25 September 2021 . Retrieved 21 November 2021. Word of Mouth". BBC Radio 4. Archived from the original on 23 December 2008 . Retrieved 26 November 2008. In March 2021, Rosen released the book Many Different Kinds of Love: A Story of Life, Death and the NHS, an account of his experience being hospitalised with COVID-19 a year earlier, [30] including his own poem for the 60th anniversary of the NHS, "These are the Hands", [31] being pinned to his bed or wall.Though Rosen has written about Eddie’s death previously (specifically in Michael Rosen’s Sad Book, a children’s title that begins with the words “This is me being sad,” beneath a Quentin Blake illustration of Rosen grinning), he has only done so sparingly and never in great detail. In Getting Better, he lays out the detail. One night Eddie complained of a headache. The next morning Rosen discovered his body cold and unmoving. When a 999 operator advised Rosen to remove Eddie from bed and place him on the floor in the recovery position – Rosen by this point knowing but not knowing that his son was already gone – Eddie fell stiffly and out of his mouth came “a bit of pale red fluid,” he writes. Paramedics confirmed Eddie’s death at the scene. Rosen watched them slide his son downstairs in a body bag. In the book, he recalls the terrible sound of the bag being zipped closed. ‘I guess I have sad thoughts every day. But I try not to be overcome by them’: Michael Rosen. Photograph: Pål Hansen/The Observer Wilkinson, Michael (1 February 2016). "Celebrities to tour Britain in 'Jeremy Corbyn For Prime Minister' musical show". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022 . Retrieved 15 July 2017. Anderson, Porter (28 June 2023). "In London, the PEN Pinter Prize Goes to Michael Rosen". Publishing Perspectives . Retrieved 2 July 2023. Rosen was appointed the sixth British Children's Laureate in June 2007, succeeding Jacqueline Wilson, and held the honour until June 2009, when he was succeeded by Anthony Browne. Rosen signed off from the Laureateship with an article in The Guardian, in which he said: "Sometimes when I sit with children when they have the space to talk and write about things, I have the feeling that I am privileged to be the kind of person who is asked to be part of it". In 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Exeter. Bearn, Emily (16 November 2008), "A novel approach to the classroom", The Sunday Times, archived from the original on 20 May 2013 , retrieved 25 November 2008

Michael Rosen has got through lots of crises in his life including the death of his parents, his son, jobs and a close shave with death with Covid. He also had a long-term illness for over a decade without realising it and Jewish relatives who he discovered died in Nazi concentration camps. Their memories he unearthed from the fragments available to him to make sure they were not forgotten. You can also use the external lift near the Artists' Entrance on Southbank Centre Square to reach Mandela Walk, Level 2. In August 2015, Rosen endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's leadership campaign in the Labour Party election. [32] He contributed to Poets for Corbyn, an anthology of poems from 20 writers. [33] [34] In the same month, he was one of many Jewish public figures who signed an open letter criticising The Jewish Chronicle 's reporting of Corbyn's association with alleged antisemites. [35] In 2016, along with others, he toured the UK to support Corbyn's bid to become Prime Minister. [36] [37]Rosen with his wife Emma-Louise Williams, at their home in London. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian Rosen has been married three times and has five children and two step-children. [72] His second son Eddie (1980–1999) died at the age of 18 from meningococcal septicaemia, and his death was the inspiration for Rosen's 2004 work Sad Book. [21] Rosen lives in North London [73] with his third wife, Emma-Louise Williams, and their two children. [74] [75] Eddie in Bed’, like many of Rosen’s poems, is based on his real-life son Eddie (one of seven children, many of whom feature in their father’s poems). Tragically, Eddie died of meningitis at the age of 18, and Rosen channelled his grief into writing an award-winning book about bereavement, Michael Rosen's Sad Book (2004). The book is illustrated by Quentin Blake, who has illustrated many of Rosen’s books throughout the years. It is aimed at children - though it could equally be used by adults - and it presents a frank but heartfelt account of the emotions aroused by bereavement. He does not present any rose-tinted happy ending, but rather emphasises the importance of learning to live with the sadness, rather than expecting it to end. Eddie’s death also features strongly in Carrying the Elephant (2002), a collection of poems about Rosen’s life, from his own childhood memories to his terrible bereavement, through to his current life with his third wife and more young children. For step-free access from the Queen Elizabeth Hall Slip Road off Belvedere Road to the Queen Elizabeth Hall auditorium seating (excluding rows A to C) and wheelchair spaces in the Rear Stalls, plus Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer and the Purcell Room, please use the Queen Elizabeth Hall main entrance.

a b c d Styles, Morag (July 1988). "Authorgraph No 51 – Michael Rosen". Books for Keeps: The Children's Book Magazine (51) . Retrieved 21 August 2008. [ dead link]. Michael Rosen to win the 2021 J.M. Barrie Award". Action for Children’s Arts. 11 May 2021. Archived from the original on 18 June 2021 . Retrieved 19 June 2021. East London on film, East End Film Festival". BFI. May 2011. Archived from the original on 3 August 2012 . Retrieved 23 February 2013. Rosen’s trademark style and humour are everywhere in his pared-down prose, evoking the north London suburbs with his communist parents, Harold and Connie, who first met as impoverished teenagers in the Jewish East End of the 1930s.

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As documented in this book, he’s been through a lot: a chronic illness, the loss of a child, and his own brush with death, and whilst that has had a huge effect on him, this book shows that, whilst it may not be easy, these things don’t have to define your life, and you can find the positives amongst them. JC4PM". jc4pmtour. 28 July 2015. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017 . Retrieved 15 July 2017. Many Different Kinds of Love: Life, Death, and the NHS by Michael Rosen is published by Ebury. He will also appear in 2020: The Story Of Us, ITV 9pm on 16 March.

Rosen attended state schools in Pinner and Harrow, and Watford Grammar School for Boys. Having discovered the range of Jonathan Miller, he thought "wouldn't it be wonderful to know all about science, and know all about art, and be funny and urbane and all that". His mother was by this time working for the BBC. Producing a programme featuring poetry, she persuaded her son to write for it, and used some of the material he submitted. Subsequently, in his own words: Rosen is well established as a broadcaster, presenting a range of documentary features on British radio. He is the presenter of BBC Radio 4's regular magazine programme Word of Mouth which looks at the English language and the way it is used. In April 2010, Rosen was given the Fred and Anne Jarvis Award from the National Union of Teachers for "campaigning for education". In July 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Nottingham Trent University. Rosen’s first children’s book, Mind Your Own Business (1974), was a collection of poems. It included drawings by Quentin Blake, who also illustrated Roald Dahl’s books. Some of his other poetry collections are You Wait Till I’m Older Than You (1996) and Bananas in My Ears (2011). Many of his poems are about his life between the ages of 2 and 12. I did at first assume it would be a follow up from this book, documenting more about his recovery from COVID-19, and it is to a point, but it’s also about his life, the difficult things he’s had to go through and what lessons he has learned through them.

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The idea for the Children’s Laureate came from a conversation between children’s author Michael Morpurgo and Ted Hughes, who was the Poet Laureate at the time. The two-year honour is bestowed upon outstanding writers who have made significant contributions to the field of children’s literature. After Quentin Blake, the second Children’s Laureate was Anne Fine (2001-03), followed by Michael Morpurgo (2003-05) and Jacqueline Wilson (2005-07). Comedian Cariad Lloyd said of this book that it’s “like having a cup of tea and a chat with Michael himself”, and I’d have to agree. There’s no ego here, no ulterior motive, and he’s not trying to prove anything. It’s just him talking about his own experience and how he might be able to help others, and its just warming, humorous, silly, natural, and above all, honest. Really honest. And we all need that. Many Different Kinds of Love follows a familiar Rosen format – an anthology of “Bits and Stuff”. As well as the poems, there is a letter written by a GP friend who sent him straight to A&E, extracts from his “patient’s diary” recorded by nurses and care-workers while he was in intensive care, and messages from his wife Emma, very much the heroine of the story. The result reflects how being in hospital “jumbles up your memories and perceptions, there’s no chronology to it”, and also his habit of jotting things down “to have a conversation with myself on paper” as a way of coping with “strange and weird” events.