Best-selling Poet Michael Rosen to bring show to Salisbury Cathedral

Tuesday, 7 July 2026 06:00

Broadcaster, poet and author Michael Rosen is bringing his show Getting Through It to Salisbury Cathedral on January 15 2027.

The former children's laureate brings a "powerful and personal" combination of monologue and poetry that explores themes of trauma, grief, and mortality.

In the first part, The Death of Eddie, Michael explores his experience after losing his 18-year-old son to meningitis, recalling the strange and contradictory mix of emotions felt after the unexpected loss. This story, memorably captured in Michael’s children’s book The Sad Book, is told in vivid and poetic detail.

In the second part, Many Kinds of Love, Michael recounts his 48-day period in intensive care, after contracting COVID-19 early in the pandemic, and having to face his own mortality.

Both stories are told with Michael’s signature positivity, humour and poetry. Together, the two pieces are a testimony to the spirit of recovery.

Mr Rosen said, "I have found that the best way for me to handle the 'big stuff' that I've been through, is to write about it in 'bits', fragments. Then, when I string these fragments together, they tell a story of what happened and how I feel about it. It's like a mosaic.

"As the title says, it is indeed about 'getting through it', but I very much hope that in telling the story, it helps anyone watching find that though. That we might bend, but we can find ways to not break. One of the ways, as you might expect with me, has been to discover that there is, incredibly, an absurd and comic side to this.”

Tickets for Michael Rosen: Getting Through It on Friday 15 January 2027 are on sale now. Tickets are available via the website www.salisburycathedral.org.uk

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