Radio Head, up and down the dial of British radio. – published by Simon&Schuster. Broadcast as Radio 4’s Book of the Week.
The Newsagent’s Window – published by Simon&Schuster. Winner of best memoir at East Anglian Book of the Year awards.
Don’t Need the Sunshine – published by AA Publishing.
“Funny, perceptive and charming …He made me laugh, made me think. If his book were a phone-in, I’d be on the line.” Gillian Reynolds – The Daily Telegraph.
‘A lovely, engaging writer finding the joyous in the everyday’ – Stuart Maconie.
‘His work has a winning gentleness, a seductive voice that draws you in and ensnares you.’ – Ian McMillan.
A Supermarket Love Story
Published by Go Faster Stripe, illustrations by Katie Pope, .
‘A lovely, engaging writer finding the joyous in the everyday.’
– Stuart Maconie
‘His work has a winning gentleness, a seductive voice that draws you in, ensnares you and captivates you.’
– Ian McMillan
‘John’s story left me and my children spellbound and in tears,’ Stewart Lee in The Observer, on Don’t Need the Sunshine on Radio 4.
“There’s an extraordinary warmth in Osborne’s verse fired by a rare ability to see joy and beauty in the commonplace” – The New European.
Poems about supermarkets and the people who use them. We meet two paramedics in the crisps aisle, a butcher on the meat counter who is considering vegetarianism, love blooms as two people on their own with baskets say hi to each other. We join staff with untucked shirts sitting on kick stools stacking shelves and find that every aisle really does tell a different story.
The Alcohol Aisle was longlisted in the 2020 National Poetry Competition.
Food Banks was Poem of the Week in Bella Caledonia.
No One Cares About Your New thing
Poems about Kylie internet dating, looking at the constellations and snorkelling in the Bahamas.
John has had poetry broadcast on Radio 1, Radio 3, Radio 4, BBC 6Music, XFM and the BBC Asian Network. He’s been a guest on Scroobius Pip’s Distraction Pieces podcast and is a co-host of Soho Radio show Stress Test, writing poems live on air alongside co-hosts poets Martha Sprackland and Joe Dunthorne.
Circled In The Radio Times
Illustrated by Katie Pope.
Two stories from the creator of Radio 4 shows John Peel’s Shed and The New Blur Album.
Circled in the Radio Times is about finding an old collection of copies of the Radio Times and piecing together the life of the previous owner through the shows that have been circled.
You’re in a Bad Way focuses on two sisters whose dad gets dementia, and the very different ways they choose to deal with the news.
‘Melts the boundaries between spoken word poetry, storytelling theatre and stand up with its sheer warmth, sensitivity and openness.’ – ***** Broadway Baby.
