December 11, 2011 was a day not missed by many Geoffrey Hill readers in London. Hill gave a poetry reading at Southbank Center that featured poems from
Clavics as well as previous volumes, followed by a book signing and readings by James Byrne, Kate Kilalea (in photo below), and Niall McDevitt.
Hill said that the owl on the cover of
Clavics was an adaptation of a photo taken by Eric Hosking somewhere between 1944-1947. He said this was a case in which he knew the photo before beginning the book, and wrote the book for the cover, in a way similar to
Canaan.
