Clare Best’s first collection, Excisions, opens with a sequence entitled ‘Matryoshka’ (“nested Russian dolls”) about the death of her parents, and feelings of grief and memory. Best’s poems, which have an intensity and physicality about them, include arresting descriptions of the body, as for example in “Stitch”, My grandmother knew about seams- her abdomen ruched Read More
Jamie McKendrick (Faber and Faber, 2012); pbk, 9.99. Out There is the sixth collection from poet and translator Jamie McKendrick. It opens with an epigraph sourced from Dante’s Paradiso: “This little patch of earth that makes us all so fierce.” That juxtaposition of earth and fierce humanity resonates thematically throughout McKendrick’s poems, which articulate the Read More
Mary M Talbot and Bryan Talbot (Cape, 2013); hdbk, £14.99. This graphic memoir and biography is the first collaborative project from Bryan and Mary Talbot. Bryan Talbot is an established comics creator whose previous works include Alice in Sunderland and the Grandville series. Mary Talbot is an academic writer whose research into language, gender and Read More
Emily Berry (Faber and Faber, 2013); pbk, £9.99. As a debut collection, Emily Berry’s Dear Boy intrigues, capturing the imagination with a sense of poetic experimentation. Yet Berry rarely forges any profound or emotional link with her readers, and seems strangely distant as a narrator. This is odd, as there is significant intimacy in her Read More
Ian Fleming (Vintage Classics, 2012); pbk, £5.99. In 1952, Ian Fleming fled London’s winter chill for Goldeneye, his home in Jamaica, with the aim of writing ‘the spy story to end all spy stories’. The result was Casino Royale (1953), and the birth of the most enduring fictional icon the world has ever seen. Dispatched Read More
(UK, 2013) 10-12 April; DCA. Paul Bush’s film Babeldom can easily be defined as an enigma. A terrifying “mockumentary”, the film leaves the viewer feeling uneasy and disoriented, yet manages to accompany this disquietude with a sense of awe at the spectacular juxtaposition of animation and handheld cityscape visuals. The film is narrated sporadically by Read More
Helen Buckingham (Waterloo Press, 2011); pbk: £10. Armadillo Basket is a tender and often brutally honest assessment of a poet’s life and career. Its author, Helen Buckingham, has been published internationally in many small print publications and has been nominated for several awards, including an honourable mention at the 2011 Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Read More
The Wolf Stepped Out is a character study of a man straddling the threshold of madness in a world which at best cares little and at worst deliberately aggravates his psychosis. The titular “wolf” is Jason Irvine, a thirty-something former rock musician of the most uncompromising kind now facing a life without music, prospects, family, or Read More
First impressions often colour the perspective, and in the case of Alexander McCall Smith’s new novel, Trains and Lovers, the initial sense is of a self-help book most likely to be found close to the booksellers’ counter. The size, feel and appearance of the book give off that sense of introspection. McCall Smith is renowned for Read More