Paul Millicheap (born 14 June 1970), who writes as Brian Bilston, is a British poet and author.
Biography
Born in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
, England, he studied at the
University of Wales, Swansea, before entering the publishing industry as a marketing manager, notably for
John Wiley in
Oxford
Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town.
The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
.
Using the pseudonym Brian Bilston, he began publishing short and pithy, often humorous, poems on
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
, which were then spread widely on
social media
Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...
. He gained up to 400,000
followers, and has been described as "The Poet Laureate of Twitter". The poet
Ian McMillan described Bilston as "a laureate for our fractured times",
[Freeman, Greg]
"Alexa, what's the latest about Brian Bilston, poet laureate of Twitter?"
''Write Out Loud'', 14 January 2021. Retrieved 15 December 2023 and he has been compared to
Don Marquis
Donald Robert Perry Marquis ( ; July 29, 1878 – December 29, 1937) was an American humorist, journalist, and author. He was variously a novelist, poet, newspaper columnist, and playwright. He is remembered best for creating the characters A ...
,
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet and writer of fiction, plays and screenplays based in New York; she was known for her caustic wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles.
Parker ros ...
, and
Ogden Nash
Frederic Ogden Nash (August 19, 1902 – May 19, 1971) was an American poet well known for his Light poetry, light verse, of which he wrote more than 500 pieces. With his unconventional rhyme, rhyming schemes, he was declared by ''The New York T ...
.
[Cronley, Connie]
"Light, Bright Verse"
''LIFE’s Vintage Newsmagazine'', August 2022, p. 32.
Bilston has published three collections of verse, ''You Took the Last Bus Home'' (2016); ''Alexa, What Is There to Know About Love?'' (2021); and ''Days Like These: An Alternative Guide to the Year in 366 Poems'' (2022). He has also written a book of football poems, ''50 Ways to Score a Goal'' (2021). His first novel, ''Diary of a Somebody'' (2019), was shortlisted for the
Costa Book Award for First Novel
The Costa Book Award for First Novel, formerly known as the Whitbread Award (1971–2006), was an annual literary award for authors' debut novels, part of the Costa Book Awards which were discontinued in 2022, the 2021 awards being the last made.
...
, and his poem "Refugees" has been published as an illustrated book for children.
[ In 2023, he published a book of "seasonally adjusted poems", ''And So This Is Christmas''.
He has been called "the ]Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist, and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive ep ...
of the poetry world"; in publicity photographs promoting his speaking tours, he hides his face behind a book.[
In 2025, Bilston was shortlisted for the CLiPPA poetry award for his children's collection, ''Let Sleeping Cats Lie'' (Pan Macmillan, 2024) In an interview for Just Imagine he said 'One thing I would say is that it’s easier to take all the shackles off when you’re writing for children. I think there’s less expectation that a poem needs to be a particular kind of thing. Basically, children are far more imaginative and accepting and carry so much more joy in them than a lot of grown-ups. '
He also recorded and released an album, ''Sounds Made By Humans'', with ]indiepop
Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and ...
band the Catenary Wires.
Publications
* ''You Took the Last Bus Home'' (2016)
* ''Diary of a Somebody'' (2019)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bilston, Brian
1970 births
Living people
21st-century English poets
Alumni of Swansea University
English male poets
Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands