London Grip Poetry Review – Ruth O’Callaghan
Nick Cooke considers Ruth O’Callaghan’s ambitious poetic meditation on London’s immigrants
society
Excursion to the Mill House, Bromley by Bow, by Jane McChrystal.
There’s no other way to say it – we were in a different world – one with a clock tower and two oast houses, paved with cobble stones.
Celebration of the East London Federation of Suffragettes
The East End of London was a crucible for radical ideas and activism, including the women’s suffrage movement, fired in part by the deprivation and inequality experienced by so many of its inhabitants.
Poems for Grenfell Tower
Rip Bulkeley describes the planning and production of a forthcoming anthology of poems responding to the fire in Grenfell Tower .
Excursion to Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, by Jane McChrystal.
It was the second Sunday in January and people were emerging from the cocoon of the long holiday to take a walk along the Thames Path. The grey skies and a chill in the damp air seemed to signal the right conditions for me to head north from the Isle of Dogs and explore Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park.
RenWomen. Review by Julia Pascal.
In our society multi-tasking is often seen as a women’s skill but rather than it being a critique of Jill of All Trades, the thesis behind the book is to honour the fresh concept of Renaissance Women.
Improving the flavour
London Grip readers may remember Bernard Green’s previous reminiscences about his early life on the Surrey-Hampshire border. Here he returns with a new recollection – this time couched in verse…
The Mystery of Dunkirk, by Jane McChrystal.
Dunkirk has emerged as 2017’s summer blockbuster movie. The director Christopher Nolan has been widely praised for his ability to immerse film-goers in the terrifying experience of soldiers, sailors and airmen involved in the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) by land, sea and air between 26th May and 4th June, 1940.
The Living Thames Cruise, Sunday 27th August. By Jane McChrystal.
Londongrip’s readers are invited to take a cruise on the Thames Estuary on Sunday, 27th August. The cruise offers an unusual opportunity to get a closer look at some of the Estuary’s less accessible attractions: the Red Sands Forts, built to protect London during the Second World War; the sunken cargo ship, SS Richard Montgomery and the Thames Sailing barges racing in their annual match.
The World Saved by Kids
Caroline Maldonado welcomes Cristina Viti’s recent translation of a 1968 poem-cycle by Elsa Morante
Emma Hamilton in Naples: Her Years of Glory. Jane McChrystal.
It was the Kingdom of Naples that gave Emma the chance to transform herself into an artist, society lady and skilled operator at the court of Queen Maria Carolina, wife of King Ferdinand IV, its reigning monarch.
Elf Lyons, ChiffChaff. Review by Barbara Lewis.
What do you do when life gives you lemons? Make lemonade is the wrong answer, says Elf Lyons, who is the product – and that’s not too economic a term – of father Gerard Lyons, former economic advisor to Boris Johnson, artist mother Annette Lyons and the Philippe Gaulier clown school on the outskirts of Paris.