This post is the latest update to my ‘Reading List’ project begun in July 2015. The Lammas Hireling, Ian Duhig (Picador, 2003) From the opening poem ‘Blood’, an extended description of a self-styled skinhead-type hardman who turns out to be a fifteen-year-old who faints at the sight of a vaccination needle ‘in front of aRead more ⟶
Category: The Reading List
The Reading List, week 5: McVety, Konig, James
Right now my reading material consists mainly of kitchen brochures, legal house-moving gumph and internet research on macerator toilets and whether you need planning permission to change a window on the rear of a building. So the antidote is of course a splash of poetry. ‘Splash’ being the right word, I think, consider the amount ofRead more ⟶
The Reading List, week 4: Heaney, O’Brien, Williams
As promised, The Reading List continues … District & Circle, Seamus Heaney (Faber, 2006) Everything you’d expect from a Heaney collection: poignant but unsentimental recollections of the past, images you can’t get out of your head days later, a familiar strangeness, the ghosts of various characters from Edward Thomas and Dorothy Wordsworth to HarryRead more ⟶
The Reading List, week 3
Things have gone a tad pear-shaped these last 2 weeks and I’ve managed to read only 3 books –but I have various excuses, ranging from (ahem!) work, getting ready for our holiday (imminent), selling our house (exchange of contracts WE HOPE imminent), flat-hunting for new flat to replace the one we had to pull outRead more ⟶
The Reading List, week 2
The weather has been so good lately it’s tempting to go out for a walk (or a pub lunch!) rather than read. But I’m enjoying the discipline – I find last thing at night and first thing in the morning are good times to read. This week I read through five more collections. Hangman’s AcreRead more ⟶
The Reading List, week 1
In the first week of my ‘read a poetry book a day’ quest I actually managed five books rather than seven, but I think that’s a pretty good start. As promised here’s a very brief roundup of my impressions, and a few notes on how the process is going generally. The books How to PourRead more ⟶