Clive James’ name suffices as its own introduction; with Poetry Notebook the Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist excels again. Following his two most recent collections (Sentenced to Life and Injury Time) this was a moving, educating and stimulating read. James, as usual, writes with witty relish which both motivates and challenges in Read More
You know that episode of Friends where Ross is on one of his mildly patronising rants, oblivious to his friends’ disinterest? Yes, I realise that doesn’t narrow it down. It’s this specific one, when he states: “Soon, there will be computers that can carry out the same amount of functions as an actual human brain! Read More
Already from the south I heard them weeks ago creaking above me through the air at dusk – and then the cold. Eighteen below, each pond a cataract of ice. Where did they go? Read More
It’s a pity Ross Hair’s Avant-Folk is aimed at the academic market-place – pricing it off the bookshelves for most of us – as there’s so much of interest and relevance to Scottish writers and readers. Hair examines the inter-connections and shared sensibilities of poet-artists including Ian Hamilton Finlay, Thomas A. Clark, Lorine Niedecker, Simon Cutts Read More
Visitors entering through the main foyer may well have their attention caught by the major Pictish cross-slab, the St Madoes Stone, or by the delicately embroidered butterflies in glass cases, before they notice the unexpected large black steel arachnid on the wall above eye level. This is placed above the entrance to the Louise Bourgeois Read More
Song used in Edward Small, The Four Marys (Dundee: The Voyage Out Press, 2017; ISBN:9780995512313)
There is a tradition of photography that focuses on urban poverty, decay, disintegration, and entropy; in “urbex”, crumbling, abandoned buildings are transformed into hauntingly and fashionably beautiful images. I couldn’t help but bristle at the title of Ocean Vuong’s newly Forward Prize crowned and now TS Eliot Prize shorlister, Night Sky with Exit Wounds. Is Read More
Sure, there is a kernel of some mattered thing in here and understood if only you can eat it and make it matter much. ({{du|he|tao}}) Eric Langley works as a lecturer at UCL, specialising in Shakespeare and Renaissance literature. Although he has had previous publications Read More
Trinidadian poet Richard Georges dispels the myth of the Caribbean as a modern-day paradise in his debut collection by invoking the ghosts and shipwrecks of his native islands in a sequence of darkly foreboding poems. The opening poem “Griot” sets the tone with its description of the voyage of the enslaved Abednego across the Atlantic Read More
In a political climate where homophobia is a symptom of the backlash against tolerance, aided and abetted by populist and right-wing movements across the globe, the publication of The Red Beach Hut raises important questions about society’s misinterpretations of homosexuality. But Michell’s lightness of touch and her ability to get under the skin of her Read More