Pam Thompson finds that Charlotte Gann’s first full collection succeeds in its aim of unsettling the reader.
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Richie McCaffery takes the opportunity to extend his appreciation of Richard Kell’s poetry.
John Lucas finds multiple reasons to recommend this memoir by Gail Holst-Warhaft which is studded through with her own accomplished poetry and also gives a shrewdly observant account of post-war Greek history
The cliché is that first novels are always autobiographical. Dutch writer Jeroen Blokhuis instead hides behind the biographical in his verbal portrait of one of the greatest painters his nation has produced.
I usually find middle-brow fiction quite consoling. So, I turned to my bookshelves in search of something not too literary in the hope of distraction from these troubled times. Colin, a supernatural tale, published in two parts by E.F. Benson in 1923, seemed to fit the bill.
Ruth Valentine admires the subtlety of Jane Draycott’s poetic effects.
Emma Lee wonders whether the poems in Clare Brant’s new collection do full justice to the ideas she wants to explore
D A Prince reviews a debut collection by Julie Hogg in which the poems have potential for performance as well as being successful on the page.
Playing with ‘The Rules’: Brian Docherty considers an anthology whose poems could be viewed as case studies in ekphrasis – but also as much more than that.
James Roderick Burns notes that Michael Crowley has taken some risks in order to negotiate a way through conflicting themes and historical viewpoints in his new collection
Kate Bingham praises Joan Michelson’s eye for the details of life in a retirement home.
Roger Caldwell reviews Ian Gordon‘s recent biography of the poet Anne Stevenson
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • authors, books, literature, poetry, year 2017 1 • Tags: authors, books, literature, poetry, Roger Caldwell