Knowing she would soon be leaving New York, Mary Austin Speaker decided to create a piece of work which would honour the city she had called home for over a decade. The result is her wonderful new book of poetry, The Bridge. One of the reasons that this collection is so compelling is that it Read More
Night Photograph is a reissue of Greenlaw’s first collection, originally published in 1993. The collection was shortlisted for the Whitbread and Forward Poetry prizes. Greenlaw’s subsequent work has included fiction and non-fiction, and she has also produced several radio programmes with the BBC. The poet was born in London and she has lived there for Read More
“The Suitcase” exemplifies the central themes that make this collection of short stories an interesting and entertaining read. Overall, I found that the collection was well-written in presenting a spectrum of human experiences, with the author drawing vividly on episodes, usually tragic or traumatic, from across the lifespan. The author also explores the deceptive nature Read More
In a context beyond the confines of her pamphlet, Dialogue on the Dark, Nuala Watt has stated that “If you have a serious and/or lifelong condition, you need to develop a psychological firewall […], an essential piece of psychological kit” (see note below). Indeed the first page in the pamphlet is devoted to Watt’s response Read More
I practised deep inhaling, hoping, like you, to float. You travelled so light, your shoes never lined up for cleaning on Saturday nights. I imagined a flutter of postcards, you summoning me. The thick thunk of junk mail daily hit the floor, deposited by the wheezing postie. I named a constellation after you. It’s still Read More
“So Don, why do you love poetry?” It takes only three words of Don Paterson’s reply to what I naively think will be a nice, easy first question for me to understand that this is not going to be an hour of nice, easy assumptions. “Oh I don’t” he replies immediately “that would be a Read More
Hwæt! Whether you take that iconic, still-contentious word as an exclamation, an exhortation, or accept Heaney’s gently Hibernian “So”, whatever aspects of the Anglo Saxon epic you unravel in Leásungspell , from the first Bob Beagrie alerts you that all is not as it seems. Huisht, lads, haad ya gobs [.] Set in Northumbria, 657 Read More
“Facts are chiels that winna ding / An downa be disputed” (Robert Burns, “A Dream”, 1786) This is an important book. As well as a history of the Scientific Revolution, it is a polemical defence of the very notion of such a revolution and an attack on the relativism which has infected much of academia Read More
Sister, it’s time to trace the stories on your skin. Slick our myths across your chest. Open your wounds. Begin [.] Amazon charts Northumbrian poet Catherine Ayres’ journey through breast cancer, a mastectomy and the fallout for herself her family, friends and relationships. Normally, I avoid reviewing friends’ work, but I have made an exception Read More
3rd December 2016- 19th February 2017, DCA Jings! Crivvens! Help ma Boab! As part of the celebrations of 80 years of the iconic Oor Wullie and The Broons, DCA ‘s latest exhibition features the responses of six contemporary artists to items from the DC Thomson archives. This follows on from the summer’s Oor Wullie Bucket Read More