top of page

Welcome to The Jotter, my blog on books, writing, and culture.
Subscribe for free below, join 166 others, and receive the following:
-
A weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with videos and articles on books, writing, food, culture, and music
-
1x free entry into The Poet's Workshop Poetry Prize 2026
-
A free PDF guide on 'Preparing Your Poems for Publication'
-
Latest news and samples of my poetry, prose fiction and non-fiction
-
Exclusive, original work from guest writers
To support my writing, and for even more exclusive content, and extra entries to the poetry prize, buy The Jotter Premium Plan here.


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — The Poetry of the Packed Lunch
Subscribe to Andrew's weekly newsletter here and don't miss out on his latest writing.
Andrew Jamison
2 days ago4 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — Oranges from Spain... from Tesco, and Louis MacNeice
Subscribe to Andrew Jamison's weekly newsletter here for more updates and articles from The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food.
Andrew Jamison
3 days ago2 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — A Chocolate Mallow in the Tesco Car Park with Gus
Read another chapter of Andrew Jamison's food writing. You can read the rest here .
Andrew Jamison
4 days ago5 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — In Praise of Parmesan (POEM)
Read an exclusive poem from Andrew Jamison's third collection of poetry, Swans We Cannot See, and buy a signed copy here .
Andrew Jamison
4 days ago1 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — Eating Alone in an Empty Diner (POEM)
Read this exclusive poem from Andrew Jamison's first collection Happy Hour, which you buy a signed copy of here.
Andrew Jamison
4 days ago1 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — Fifteens
Read this and more of Andrew's food writing by upgrading to The Jotter Premium Plan here .
Andrew Jamison
Nov 263 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — To Lime Pickle (POEM)
Read an exclusive poem from Andrew's third collection Swans We Cannot See , which you can buy a signed, first edition of here:
Andrew Jamison
Nov 51 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — How Can We Write About Food in 2025?
Explore Andrew's thoughts on the ethics of food writing in 2025, and how his food writing is bound up with his poetry. To subscribe to his blog for exclusive weekly posts, you can do so here:
Andrew Jamison
Nov 56 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — Gravy Chips
To read Andrew's food writing series, The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food, you need to pay for a subcription which you can do here .
Andrew Jamison
Oct 244 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — A Pint of Guinness, and a Scotch Egg with Oxford Sauce, in Oxford
To subscribe to Andrew's food writing follow this link .
Andrew Jamison
Oct 237 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — The Slow Art of Porridge, Quickly
I know what you might be thinking... porridge!? First of he's writing about chicken and mushroom Pot Noodles and now it's porridge! Hardly Elizabeth David or Jane Grigson is he? Well, that may well be the case, and in fact, I'd never claim to be of the same stature as those wonderful food writers, but I'm becoming quite zealous about porridge. I have it every morning. What's Wrong with Weetabix? Well, nothing. And it's a damn sight more healthy than a lot of other processed
Andrew Jamison
Oct 203 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — Apple Crumble
Apples are one of my favourite ingredients to cook with , when I’m not eating them by themselves. Dr Bircher-Benner, founding father of the Bircher Mueslie (aka overnight oats) was adamant about the multifarious qualities of raw apple, including minerals, high fiber and vitamins. Not only that but he saw them as a way to energise recovering patients and aid their digestion. I wonder if apples have become so ubiquitous that we have come to take their miraculous properties for
Andrew Jamison
Oct 144 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — Cooking for Other People
Discover more about Andrew Jamison's life in food. Subscribe to his weekly newsletter here.
Andrew Jamison
Oct 63 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — Sunday Dinner... at Lunchtime.
A journey through Andrew Jamison's life in food. Subscribe to his weekly newsletter here.
Andrew Jamison
Oct 13 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — Wheat Beer
Wheat Beer One of the students in the room next to me, Matt, had gone to public school, Westminster to be precise. I was completely unaware and naive to the English education system at this point. We ended up being great friends and he even came back to NI with me at one point to see where I’m from and experience it. Two things struck me about Matt: 1. he was incredibly polite. 2. He had a cool-box full of funny looking European beers. Matt was studying German, and had al
Andrew Jamison
Sep 221 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — A Ginsters BLT, a packet of Flame Grilled Steak McCoy’s and a Can of Coke
This was, and in many respects still is, my go-to takeaway lunch. Queen Mary was quite unique in relation to many other London universities in that it had its own halls of residence on its campus, and the year I moved in the accommodation had just been renovated. Clad in sheets of zinc, with big windows, by the Mile End Canal it was very striking and appealing to an 18 year old, and when you add in how our kitchen on the fourth floor had a view of Canary Wharf it was pretty
Andrew Jamison
Sep 162 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — The Home Bakery
The Home Bakery The Home Bakery was Crossgar’s only bakery. I remember the shop itself only vaguely – small, a modest banner above the door, an unadorned shopfront, undecorated, unexciting. I can’t even remember the baker. The reason for my hazy memory of the home bakery is due to the fact my mother never really allowed us to go in for fear of wanting everything on display. As a parent now, I can see the logic in this. Instead, we would sit in the car and wait. Also, if my
Andrew Jamison
Sep 101 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food — Houmous
Houmous As a student in London in the early 2000s houmous was ubiquitous; I’m not saying people were throwing it from windows or from their cars as you waited at the bus stop, but places like Leon were starting to pop up and also this was East London, so there were plenty of Lebanese restaurants (not that I went to any!). My first experience of houmous was at student house parties in East London. Invariably it was either too garlicky, or too dry, or too lemony – in short, i
Andrew Jamison
Sep 32 min read


An Introduction to The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food
In this video Andrew explains what this thread of his blog is about, what you can expect to find in it and why he started writing. You...
Andrew Jamison
Aug 261 min read


The Hungry Poet: My Life in Food - 'Burning a Frozen Pizza', 'Bacon Sandwiches'
Burning a Frozen Pizza The first night I had to cook for myself in London, I put a frozen pizza in the oven. Well, I thought it was the oven, but I’d actually turned on the grill. Needless to say, after about 20 minutes the kitchen absolutely stank of burnt pizza and the pizza was black on top and still frozen underneath. Suffice to say, since then, I have always been careful to choose the setting of the oven very carefully when heating up frozen processed foods. It wasn’t
Andrew Jamison
Aug 261 min read
bottom of page











