I love words. (Why else would you or I be here?) And images. Clever things with words are just the bees’ knees. And music? It exerts such power, it’s the soundtrack to our lives. We’d be lost without it.

Lazy Gramophone is a vibrant hub for all of these things; a creative collective delivering treats for the eyes, ears and mind. It launched in 2003. So how on earth has it escaped me until now?

Over the past week I’ve dipped and dived in and out of the world established by creative head and ‘tastemaker’ Philip Levine, having already fallen in love with the spindly pencil drawings by co-founder, writer and editor Sam Rawlings and those of illustrator Matt Black.

From humble beginnings seen in its earlier websites, Lazy Gramophone seems to be turning heads, and with such originality under its wing this is hardly surprising. Adam Green’s Satsuma Sun-mover was the imprint’s first publication, and was nominated for the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2006. Will Conway’s début, Tastes of Ink sounds as dark as the cover and Karen Georghiou’s gentle YouTube author interview is a really enjoyable watch.

Many of the artistic wares were on sale at their Lazy Lowbrow Festival earlier in September, but don’t fret if you didn’t make it along to that. There’s plenty to offer on the site – musings on ‘vitriolic’ printed bog rolls, or a Ladies Poodle t-shirt by Tom the Pen, anyone?

There’s much anticipation surrounding the launch of ex-UEA’s Liz Adams’ poetry collection Green Dobermans this week. I know you should never judge a book by its cover but the cover really is beautiful in a less is more way. I’d frame it and I don’t even like dogs much. The poetry traverses the ethereal and sees ‘familiar capital cities blur and collide.’

Definitely worthy of your attention are Kaitlin Beckett’s lovingly executed exoskeletons and ink-dipped Rocket Taxi. And last but not least, let us not forget ‘yesterday’s terrible infant’ Neil Addison whose writing makes me laugh very much and will always make me think twice whenever seeking justice in a chip shop.

You don’t need a gramophone and don’t necessarily have to be lazy to see what you’ve been missing.

Rebecca Smeaton