A DISLOCATION OF MIND: Alwyn Marriage examines David Banning’s self-declared “attempts to engage with the many contradictions swirling around in the mind of RS Thomas”
books
Poetry review – AS IT MUST: Colin Pink considers an interesting new collection by Gale Burns which is sometimes emotionally restrained and yet surprisingly and strikingly graphic about politics and death
THREE MELOS PRESS PAMPHLETS: Ian Pople reviews poetry by Michele Roberts, NS Thompson and Andrew McCulloch
Connected Worlds of Bruges. Review by Barbara Lewis. As part of the constant flow of luminaries in and out of the cultural and commercial hub of 16th-century Bruges, Henry VIII sent Thomas More there in 1515 as part of a diplomatic mission to settle trade and financial disputes. His visit to Flanders was also when More began his classic work “Utopia”.
Quartet in Autumn. Review by Barbara Lewis. Lonely, unloved women are the protagonists of Barbara Pym’s novels. The brave honesty of her subject matter led some publishers to reject her, although the poet Philip Larkin was famously among her advocates.
Poetry review – SOMETHING LIKE GRACE: Jennifer Johnson follows Annie Forbes as she uses poetry to explore different understandings of grace
Poetry review – FRAGMENTS OF AN AMERICA (VOLUME II): Charles Rammelkamp finds both warmth and urgency in these state-of-the-nation poems by Chris McNally
Poetry review – DARLING BLUE: Rennie Halstead explores the strands within a narrative sequence by Sarah James
No Ghosts. Review by Barbara Lewis. Something is so wrong with contemporary life that even the ghosts have stopped haunting it – and yet “No Ghosts” is not so much about the supernatural, or the lack of it, as about the intensely emotional nature of human friendship in early adulthood.
Poetry review – FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT: Thomas Ovans admires Alwyn Marriage’s sequence of ekphrastic poems based on Christian artworks
DON’T FORGET WE’RE HERE FOREVER: Michael Bartholomew-Biggs admires Lamorna Ash’s honest account of a spiritual exploration.
Poetry review – MINX: Jessica Mookherjee admires Karen Downs-Barton’s ability to see and understand a broken past and then reassemble the fragments
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • added recently on London Grip, books, poetry reviews, year 2026 • Tags: books, Jessica Mookherjee, poetry