When I joined Carcanet as managing editor, I thought I understood how things worked. A book publisher. They publish a magazine as well. I had worked in book publishing, and for many years I had been assistant editor of an academic journal that had made its way to the printer twice a year since the 1950s, a stately ship with a cargo of footnotes. It was a shock to discover that PN Review was somewhat different. It took me months to get to grips with the dynamics of its production schedule. Neil Powell, who had been involved with the magazine for years as proofreader, copyeditor and contributor, talked me through it with the generous, slightly weary, patience of a teacher trying yet again to get a child to understand long division. Grant Shipcott the typesetter talked me through it again – and rescued me on many occasions, creating clarity and order as deadlines came to a rolling boil. Gradually, I came to understand: PN Review was not a magazine published in addition to books, it was the energy that drove Carcanet itself. The headlong rush of production was the product of Michael’s enthusiasms, wanting to share with readers a wonderful new poem, an exciting new poet, a conversation, in their immediacy, before they became fixed into books. And how many poetry magazines include articles about music, art, philosophy, rereadings of forgotten poets …? Or cartoons, like the eerie little drawings that were used to fill empty spaces – because why not, isn’t such multifariousness what makes poetry interesting? Isn’t this what matters? It’s a great editor who opens a space in this way to enlarge ...