Poetry review – A HANDFUL OF WASPS: Lucy Winrow views a year through Stuart Henson’s haiku sequence drawn from observations recorded in real time
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. Poetry review – LILITH SPEAKS: Pam Thompson admires a short collection by Clare Proctor which manages to shift through many situations
Poetry review – SOME DISTANT PIN OF LIGHT: Peter Mladinic finds wonder and mystery in this collection by Francine Witte
Poetry review – ABOVE THE TREELINE: Chris Beckett feels welcomed into this well-crafted and multilayered collection by Nora Hughes
Poetry review – THINGS WE LEAVE BEHIND and MEN OF THE SAME NAME: Ian Pople reviews new collections by Josephine Balmer and Evan Jones
Poetry review – BACKLIT: Charles Rammelkamp reviews a prize-winning collection by Liz Robbins which explores the emotions and fears behind the anonymity of sex-workers
Poetry review – A HISTORY OF WESTERN MUSIC: Rosie Johnston is impressed by August Kleinzahler’s skill at conveying the experience of listening to music
Unseen Photography from the 19th Century. Review by Barbara Lewis. Belgium, which declared independence in 1830, became a forerunner in photographic identification and is home to the oldest preserved mugshots, dating from 1843. As well as using photography to catch criminals, Belgium led the way in putting the technique to arguably criminal uses, including pornography and the wider abuse of power, which sadly finds an echo in today’s AI image manipulation.
Worlds Apart. Review by Julia Pascal. This memoir is an astonishing chronicle of recent German history seen through the eyes of a girl born in the East and brought up in the West. Except that she was not brought up at all.
Quarantaine. Review by Barbara Lewis. Flanders in its golden age produced the painters Van Eyck and Memling. Around six centuries on, the work of Belgian conceptual artist Honoré δ’O, at first sight bears no relation to his aesthetic forebears.
Poetry review – THE FIELD IN WINTER: Jean Atkin offers a few well-chosen words of praise for David Clarke’s latest collection
Poetry review – WINGING IT: Jennifer Johnson wonders if the laid-back title of Malcolm Carson’s collection belies the care with which it has been composed
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • books, poetry reviews, year 2026 • Tags: books, Jennifer Johnson, poetry