Poetry review – SELECTED POEMS: Paul McDonald enjoys a well-chosen and well-arranged selection of Maurice Riordan’s work
Poetry review – NOT MY BEST SIDE: John Forth admires this new selection of U A Fanthorpe’s poetry for its laconic and compassionate voice and its comic precision
Poetry review – THE MAYDAY DIARIES: D A Prince admires Robin Houghton’s wide-ranging collection which succeeds in mixing the personal with the political
Poetry review – THE COLOUR OF RAIN: Pat Edwards finds her imagination stirred by the poems in Susan Utting’s new collection
Poetry review – TOOK MY WAY DOWN, LIKE A MESSENGER, TO THE DEEP: Edmund Prestwich admires the intricacy of Linda France’s sonnet sequence linking the paintings of Leonora Carrington with the experience of lockdown
Poetry review – VELVEL’S VIOLIN: Wendy Klein reviews a collection by Jacqueline Saphra whose themes have acquired even more depth and significance in light of post-publication events
Poetry review – ON BALANCE: Sultana Raza is intrigued by the underlying threads and themes in this short collection by John Harvey
Poetry review – SIXTY POEMS: Rennie Halstead commends the diversity and range of Paul McDonald’s poetry
Poetry review – HOLLYWOOD OR HOME: Charles Rammelkamp enjoys Kathryn Gray’s excursions into the illusory world of film where the past seems to be preserved even as time moves on for the rest of us.
Dance: “Tutu”. Review by Primrose MacFay. What fun! A show called “Tutu” threatens serious political attention and then turns out to be quite other, a genre-bending, gender-bending romping rampage through conventions not just of dance but of human, or – one might as well say it – sexual relations.
Poetry review – HALF OTHER: Emma Storr admires an extraordinary account of the joys and sorrows of twinship by Peter Wallis
Poetry review – SUNBATHING WITH FISHERMEN: Emma Storr admires the strength of feeling in Penny Sharman’s poems whether they are dealing with pain and loss or joy and pleasure
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • books, poetry reviews, year 2025