Category: Events

Categories Damian Lewis Events Poetry Print Media Reviews Tributes

A Poet for Every Day of the Year review: Ode to Helen McCrory cuts to the heart of the matter

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An Ode to Helen McCrory at the National Theatre

by Dominic Maxwell | The Times | January 26, 2022
Damian Lewis paid fitting tribute to his late wife
Damian Lewis paid fitting tribute to his late wife URSZULA SOLTYS

★★★★☆

How would Damian Lewis, making his first stage appearance since the death of his wife Helen McCrory last April, begin an occasion dedicated to her memory? With a no-nonsense nod to the mixture of happiness and sadness of being at an occasional poetry reading event that she had taken part in previously herself? With a poem in her honour, performed to a well-scrubbed crowd (including McCrory’s friend Helena Bonham Carter) who had turned out to see him and Sir Simon Russell Beale, Fay Ripley, Danny Sapani and Lesley Sharp reading from the latest anthology of 366 poems edited by the evening’s organiser and host, Allie Esiri?

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Categories Damian Lewis Events Poetry Readings Tributes

DAMIAN LEWIS READS FROM ‘A POET FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR’ IN HONOR OF HELEN MCCRORY

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A Poetry Reading  Dedicated to Helen

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | January 25, 2022
‘There will be dying, but there is no need to go into that…The sun rises in spite of everything…Everything is going to be all right.’ – Derek Mahon

On Tuesday, January 25, 2022 guests gathered for a live poetry reading dedicated to the late, great Helen McCrory.  Allie Esiri, author of her latest installment A Poet for Every Day of the Year, curated the night’s event at the Lyttelton venue of National Theatre in London. From 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. a variety of readers took to the stage to read verse from the new anthology, including Damian Lewis, Lesley Sharp, Fay Ripley, Simon Russell Beale and Danny Sapani with 900+ audience members in attendance, together with Damian and Helen’s children Manon and Gulliver and family friend Helena Bonham Carter.

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Categories Damian Lewis Events Poetry Readings Tributes

A Poet for Every Day of the Year at the National Theatre

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A Poetry Reading Dedicated to Helen

National Theatre | January 16, 2022

Damian, Allie and Helen at A Poem for Every Day of the Year at the National Theatre in November 2017. Allie organized the event and Helen was one of the actresses reciting poems.

Following the success of previous poetry reading evenings at the National Theatre, Allie Esiri is back on January 25, 2022 for a fifth year with a show based on her latest anthology; A Poet for Every Day of the Year. We will journey through a calendar year, highlighting key moments and dates with poetry from some of the world’s greatest verse writers, read by some of our leading actors. This event is dedicated to Helen McCrory, who took part in some of these poetry evenings in previous years. Allie Esiri and Damian Lewis will be joined onstage by friends including Simon Russell Beale, Fay Ripley and Lesley Sharp.

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Categories Appearances Audio Damian Lewis Events Personal and Family Life Poetry

Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory’s Love Poetry Performance Rediscovered

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Cheltenham Literature Festival Revisited

by Andrew Holgate | The Sunday Times | October 9, 2021

There have been some great Cheltenham Literature Festival moments over the years – Hilary Clinton in 2017, looking back on her presidential defeat the year before; a 92-year-old David Attenborough charming the audience in 2018. But surely one of the most electric hours in the festival’s history came in 2014, with the appearance on stage of the married couple Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory.

Here consists of a recording that was thought to have been lost, an electric performance at the 2014 Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival – one of the most memorable in the festival’s history – by Damian and Helen of love poems from the poetry collection The Love Book edited by Allie Esiri.

Earlier this summer, Damian rediscovered a recording of the event, which he offers here now to listeners as a tribute to his wife. To hear the recording in full, click here.

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Categories Books Damian Lewis Events Poetry Print Media Tributes

A Poetic Tribute for Helen McCrory

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Allie Esiri Dedicates “A Poet for Every Day of the Year” to Helen

by Richard Eden | Daily Mail | September 14, 2021 & by Robbie William | Londoner’s Diary | September 15, 2021

Helen McCrory, who died in April aged 52 after a secret cancer battle, was honoured last night, September 13, 2021, at a party in London’s Holland Park.

The event marked the publication of a book by her close friend Allie Esiri, who has dedicated anthology A Poet For Every Day Of The Year to her.

‘Helen loved poetry and was brilliant at reading it,’ Esiri tells me. ‘I asked Damian [Lewis, McCrory’s actor husband] for his blessing and he gave it.’’

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