Poetry
I’ve just finished reading The Day The Grass Came. I am overwhelmed, thrilled, lit up. Virile, vital, virtuosic. Stupendous.The words demand to be spoken out loud; and the underlying connections forging the whole piece into one great organic entity are profound and muscular. The earth moves. Simon Callow
Prizewinner in Arvon(2ce), Peterloo (2ce), & Bridport competitions, Leo Aylen has published 9 poetry collections; been published in 100 anthologies, and had 100 poems broadcast on BBC R3 & R4, as well as on radio and television in Britain, Europe, America, and Africa.
He has held a Distinguished Visiting Professorship at McMaster University, Ontario, and has been Poet in Residence at Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey; Poet in Residence at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond; Cecil Day Lewis Fellow; Royal Literary Fund Fellow..
Leo has been sole subject of 3 American nationwide TV programs. (CBS).
Film
Leo Aylen’s biographical documentary – Dynamo: a life of Michael Faraday – was quite excellent. Faraday’s passion for investigation and his genius for perceiving the essentials of a problem were vividly communicated. This was a genuine popular scientific educator.
Maurice Richardson THE OBSERVER
As a writer-director he has made 15 films for TV (BBC & ITV), and
been nominated for a BAFTA award for The Drinking Party.
He has worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood. He co-wrote Gods and Generals (Warner Bros 2003, starring Robert Duvall).
He created Chaos & Pattern, a 5-film series of educational documentaries on science & engineering (2007).
See film page for Gods and Generals, and more Chaos & Pattern clips.