Sarah Leavesley’s imaginary Claire is advised to write by a psychiatrist, as doctor and patient try to piece together a life as shattered as the glass in a kaleidoscope.
Three decades after the miners’ strike of 1984, families in northern England are riven because relatives crossed the picket line.
Overlooked for centuries, her paintings were often wrongly attributed to her father, Orazio Gentileschi. In the same period her work sank to a level of obscurity equal to that one of her greatest influences, Caravaggio. His reputation was restored in the 1920’s. Artemisia Gentileschi had to wait a little longer.
Posterity remembers Emma Hamilton as the mistress of Nelson. The reality is her achievements in the society salon were in their way as brave and out of the ordinary as his naval exploits.
James Roderick Burns finds Geraldine Paine’s new narrative collection to be a timely reminder of traditional poetic virtues
Nick Cooke finds that Angela Readman’s new collection lives up to the description given on the book jacket
Wendy Klein finds Ruth Sharman’s poetry collection hard to put down
Roger Caldwell reviews Ian Gordon‘s recent biography of the poet Anne Stevenson
Pam Thompson finds that Charlotte Gann’s first full collection succeeds in its aim of unsettling the reader.
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
Emma Lee reviews a new six-author anthology of poems
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • books, poetry reviews, year 2017 • Tags: books, Emma Lee, poetry