Poetry Review – THERE MAY NOT BE A REASON WHY: Julie Hogg is deeply impressed by Nicki Heinen’s debut collection
books
GOD IN A CAN: Charles Rammelkamp reviews a new collection of flash fiction by Robert Scotellaro
Poetry review – BEAUTIFUL LOFTY THINGS: Michael Bartholomew-Biggs enjoys his examination of Cahal Dallat’s poetic version of a cabinet of curiosities
Simenon The Man, The Books, The Films by Barry Forshaw. Review by Alan Price. I came very late in the day to the works of Georges Simenon. It was five years ago whilst talking, with a friend, about the early 1960’s BBC TV series of Maigret when I picked up my first Maigret novel. It was The Misty Harbour (1932). This story of a disturbed man found wandering the streets of Paris, with no recollection of who he is or how he got there was remarkably compelling.
Poetry review – WYSG: Pat Edwards explores poems of place and landscape in a new book by Gareth Writer-Davies
Poetry review – SAYING IT WITH FLOWERS: Thomas Ovans reviews a new collection by Peter Phillips and finds its title to be deceptively gentle
Kevin Saving reflects on depictions of John Keats in two books published to mark the poet’s bi-centenary in 2021
Poetry review – CONTINUOUS CREATION; Stuart Henson reviews Les Murray’s last full collection
Poetry review – THE LIGHT ON SIFNOS: Charles Rammelkamp reviews a collection by Barbara Quick which travels through both time and space
Blaise Cendrars, The Invention of Life – Eric Robertson. Review by Alan Price. “He repeatedly expressed impatience at the demands of being a writer, preferring life spent outdoors, travelling or in the company of others to the solitary confinement of the writing desk. Cendrars was widely photographed, most famously by Robert Doisneau, but never at a writing desk.”
Eric Robertson
London Now and The Art of Literature. Review by Barbara Lewis. Leonardo da Vinci, creator of Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting sold yet, said: “painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen”. Seller of the Salvator Mundi in 2017, Christie’s, which is cultivating its image as so much more than a place where very rich people spend millions, has taken his words as part of the inspiration for an exhibition open free to the public that showcases teasingly the latest lots next to rarely seen, privately-held works that are not for sale.
Pickpocket (Robert Bresson). Review by Alan Price. Published in 1975 Bresson’s tantalisingly philosophical book Notes on the Cinematograph consists of notes, fragments, observations, wise lists about life and the difficult challenges of filmmaking. Bresson’s remark about the camera’s ability to indifferently record life happening un-dramatically, in front of the lens, feels more than appropriate for his 1959 film Pickpocket.
By Alan Price • books, film, year 2022 • Tags: Alan Price, books, film