Jill Dawson's 'Lucky Bunny'

Lucky Bunny is the toy rabbit her father gave her the day she was born –  a delicate, pretty, white soft toy  -  the first clue that better lives are lived, somewhere; safe orderly lives with biscuits for tea, ponies and window boxes full of pansies.

So what is it that makes us who we are? In tackling this mighty question through the viewpoint of the knowing Queenie, a child wise beyond her years who re-names herself at the first opportunity, the book takes a risk; but such is Dawson’s skill that she pulls it off in a breathtaking continuous panoramic sweep that takes in the blitz, Borstal and London in the swinging sixties.

 There are Dawson's usual deft moments of scene-setting

…His favourite game was to go over to Vicky Park with his shilling knife with the bone handle – all the boys had knives in those days – and practise throwing it at trees, while the crows tottered on the grass like fat vicars, and the Jewish boys chased each other around Vicky Fountain, throwing their black caps in the air…:

And her inspired gift with metaphor means that we feel as if we are there too and not just in sharing the sights and smells of the environment but also inside the character, as for example when the six year-old Queenie, mad with hunger, about to steal milk off a doorstep notices that … the light is sticky, warm and making you feel like you’re a wasp in a jar of honey…

From the filth and squalor of a home where her drunken young mother is descending into insanity to the safety of their Nan’s; to evacuation in the Fens, Queenie, the quicksilver child, tries to shield her little brother Bobbie. Always hungry and dirty, resourceful Queenie is drinking in every detail, learning every angle, cottoning on to every hint,  clocking every clue. “What’s a Brass?” she asks her Nan.

When tragedy leads to her mother’s removal and then she loses her Nan in the notorious Bethnal Green Tube disaster (breathtakingly described here) she becomes a skilful apprentice to the glamorous Green Bottle shoplifting gang while her black marketeer father, busy forging, stealing or rigging greyhounds, looks on in approval.

Queenie is a character you can’t help cheering for. At the approved school she is found to have an IQ of 180. ... “No doubt you got hold of your file and changed the figure,” says the nun in charge, “Recite some Shakespeare, can you? Explain Pythagoras’s Theorem? Thought not.” ...

... “They all say they have dreadful backgrounds,”...  sneers a Magistrate, who sees the fact that she has never known an example of a felon who transcended such circumstances as evidence that they must all be lying. Such attitudes inflame further the sense of injustice that gnaws Queenie’s soul.

Whether Dawson’s taut, lucid prose paints the suffocation in the blackness at the foot of the subway stairs, the silky ripple of a stolen mink coat billowing with Christian Dior perfume, a child on a train clutching a stolen bar of soap, teenage girls running away from an outraged john in their Anello and Davide ballet pumps or an ageing  good-time girl, …sinking n her yellow dress like a lemon soufflé, mascara blackening her cheeks…  the narrative, like a well-paced film, never falters.

And does Queenie make it? Well; through friendship, love and finally motherhood, her state of mind always compellingly portrayed, Queenie finally works out what she must do to escape and enable her little daughter to transcend her terrible origins. And the denouement is an absolute cracker which I will not spoil by any kind of hint. Suffice to say it is an audacious imaginative feat of the kind at which Dawson excels.

'Velázquez’s Riddle' by Lyn Moir

Lyn Moir, Velázquez’s Riddle Calderwood Press 2011 (http://www.calderwoodpress.co.uk/)

Take two artists (Velazquez and Picasso) and a subject, the painting Las Meninas by Velazquez. You now have two worlds; two histories heaving with seething characters and multiple landscapes (Picasso did over 50 of his variations). Pit them one against the other in the arena to explode like firework displays and you have Velázquez’s Riddle by Lyn Moir. Moir’s understanding of Spain and of art is pointed up by Penelope Shuttle in her review, quoted on the back cover… Seldom have poet and subject been so perfectly matched... she observes.                                           

Velázquez’s Riddle is the movies, it is theatre …note the solid dwarf whose open stare demands we join them on the crowded stage… (p.25 ‘Setting The Scene’). The ‘Cast of characters in Las Meninas’ on the opening page is Shakespearean, each character’s voice is clear. Moir is mistress of; creates indeed  …a finely-wrought tapestry of dramatic  monologue…. (John Greening) quoted from the back cover) and as the poems unfold you see the scenes, the circumstances of the characters and the physical spaces they inhabit, both figuratively and, as you refer to the paintings, actually. I studied the paintings over and over, drawn by the irresistible pull that Moir builds, learning more and more.

Up to now, the things I had particularly noticed in Las Meninas by Velazquez were the dog and the Infanta. The female dwarf also demanded attention. Moir, the movie director strides in however and you see not only the luminous princess… (p.8 ‘Velázquez’s Las Meninas: an Inventory’),  …this gold and silver girl… (p.13 ‘Velázquez on the King and Queen)

but also that she … is a baby adult with a gaze of steel… who already understands her own worth … I’m being groomed, I know my studbook status… (p. 12 ‘When I am Queen’).

You are shown that the top half of the painting, which Velazquez draws your eyes away from, is in fact a space which: … not empty, balances the scene below…   And you will either be made giddy by or understand that; …we have some effect upon the scene, that if we breathe too hard, too short, we might disturb the balance of the court.

Balance is key in this volume. The poems exhibits balance in the economy of their expression; the precision of the language. Moir achieves balance in her composition; half Velazquez, half Picasso; and the character of Velazquez balances in the book, a colossus foot in each half, a …looming figure, in whose hands the whole illusion rests… (p.9 'Velázquez on Velázquez'). He observes us, he observes Picasso working on his series of variations; he is the …  Ringmaster with the power to position unwitting performers at the point of maximum tension… he is described as both a hero and a star … the bill-topper …who makes us gasp at his audacity and skill in wire-walking… (p.9 'Velázquez on Velázquez').

                    

With the transition from one half of the book to the next the … world constructed on a symbol… where … stability and order are the key…  (p.21 The Outsider)   becomes a world where we must … identify the structural geometry… ( p.24 ‘Picasso Lays Claim to Velázquez’s Las Meninas’).  It becomes ever more a world of trick and illusion, Picasso is a wizard who creates… A dialogue as permanent as words inscribed on water blown by wind… (p.25 ‘Setting the Scene’).  It sparkles with mischief and humour. Picasso vows to …transmogrify the dog…  The Princess wails: …I’ve turned into a royal dwarf – can this be me?... (p.27 ‘The Green Infanta’), and endures ‘Bad Hair Day' (p.37). Both Wonderland and Neverland appear, coming memorably together in ‘Neverland’ (p.39) where the Queen, a white dot in the slate grey mirror, wishes that she and the king could … leave behind the cares of state and palace, walk together, talk alone, fuck unencumbered by maids of honour, by the court…

Geometry rules (‘Geometry’ p.38) and people get upset. … Válgame Dios! … exclaims Velázquez, …The princess is blurred, her dwarves Halloween nightmares… (p. 44 ‘First Viewing’).  But in a grim soliloquy he tells us in the next poem that Picasso is doomed; because he paints … knowing he can never escape the talons of my shadow… (p.45 ‘In the Shadow’).
I enjoyed the sensation of being part of the drama; of finding out where I, (the viewer - the reader?) was seen by the key players in the paintings. I enjoyed the feeling of skewed gravity - Velazquez as a planet around which we all, including Picasso, orbit; and I enjoyed the truly weird sensation of finding out that all this time I have been standing close to the king and queen.

Order the book from Calder Press (scroll down three books to reach it) read it and be transported.

                                                                                                                                     

A Way to Help The Poetry Society?

In 2005 when Ruth Padel was chair (of the Board of Trustees of the Poetry Society?) an EGM passed a resolution to replace the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Poetry Society with a new, updated version. If the members now were to requisition another EGM might it be possible to make another change in the constitution now? It is clear that there is no shortage of strength to mobilise for such a requisition. The Poetry Society has many many stalwart members who are not at all put off by the hard work of joining in with the action and debate we are currently in the middle of. In fact as Kate Clanchy says - it is a source of optimism to see such unflagging support from everyone.
I was reading the Poetry Society's constitution and Under heading 4,  'Powers',  the constitution states:
'To further its objects the Society may.....
and then  4.16 says: '...subject to any consent required by law, dispose of or deal with all or any of its property with or without payment and subject to such conditions as the Trustees think fit;'

Presumably the building is its property and so is the magazine and yet if instead of ending : '...as the Trustees think fit;' it added: '...provided that the majority of the membership has had the opportunity to express its wishes and votes in agreement with the change.'
Then that would avoid a situation like the one we have now wouldn't it? Or at least it might make it less likely. It would be democratic wouldn't it?

I'm sure a more legally minded person than me would be better at thinking up a new wording...
But if Ruth Padel in her day could get a new constitution instated then whoever the new Chair is come September could do the same.
The question of the editorship needn't be a stumbling block after that. No-one wants the editor to resign, she is very very good at her job and one or two editors in the past have held long tenures. What matters is having a solid constitution and when at some point a new editor does take over the post, their contract would be renewed under terms decided according to the new constitution.

'Flannelgraphs' by Joan McGavin

This is Joan's debut collection, available from bookshops published by Oversteps Books . Titles beguiled me from the list of contents  - 'My Career as a Musical Instrument', 'Living with the Water-table', 'Shantung' - like a menu when I'm hungry. To quote Julian Stannard on the back cover: '...These are beautifully made poems which slip into our consciousness without fanfare or swagger and, again and again, they make their mark'. While Matthew Francis promises: 'These poems are full of subtle surprises, a word askew, a line ajar. When you put them down you'll find that the world is not quite where you left it.'  Indeed. There are ghosts in the collection as naturally as there are people, cars and animals. It's no good being startled - Joan brings them to your attention. They're there all right, They've brought their landscapes with them as we have our jackets... ('Dining With the Dead'). They speak to us clearly...Re-wind the videos I took of good men tipped over balconies. Re-build their unpieced bodies... ('A Corpse Leaves Instructions for a Working Funeral') and ...It was necessary to deaprt. The hiss of the fire on the flag of the hearth, as they were drowning it, reached my heart... ('The Wrens' House').

I've been reading about the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer on the Bloodaxe blog and was struck by the description there of how: ...'Many of his poems use compressed description and concentrate on a single distinct image as a catalyst for psychological insight and metaphysical interpretation. This acts as a meeting-point or threshold between conflicting elements or forces: sea and land, man and nature, freedom and control....' It seems to me that in some of Joan's poems too there are such meeting points. I'm not sure they are conflicting elements but humans meet swollen rivers ('Flood Warning, River Almond') and earthquakes ('Biography')  and are jolted into a close encounter with their own mortality. We see a hare: ...he stared ahead, as if to memorise the spot in the air in front of him he intended to punch... then find ourselevs face to face with the passing of time.

The deceptively gentle language can convey profoundest pain; as in the grief of 'Soft', the grim fortitude of  'Scullery' or the agony of 'One Use of a Painting' all the while retaining a seductive ability to find the true path that allows you, as a reader, to encounter these truths without flinching.  And the book is brimming with enchanting images: ...the names of places we may never visit move through the air like butterflies in the folds of clothing carried along the Great Wall from fort to fort.

It's a wonderful first collection and another thing I love about it is the way that Scotland appears in it. Huzza, Joan -  Thank you!

Poor Poetry Society

After the extraordinary general meeting held at the Royal College of Surgeons yesterday I'm depressed at finding out that people appointed to positions of responsibility on the grounds that they were judged capable of discharging such a duty were in fact unqualified to do so at a practical level. One remark in particular jarred (and characterised the weird bravado the Board displayed) it was a retort '...perhaps you don't go to the right parties...' made to a perfectly legitimate question put in good faith by a polite member. Talk about misjudge what would be the appropriate tone for a session where you are gradually being revealed as culpably incompetent!
What might be the appropriate manner to adopt when approximately 400 members of a respectable and august organisation of many years standing come to you; many of them from far flung parts of the UK; to ask you to account for serious irregularities in your conduct? I can only say what I would have felt like. And as the revelations became ever more alarming - financial irregularity, no adherence to basic HR protocols, little KNOWLEDGE of basic HR procedures and practices and only the skimpiest grasp, it appeared, of employment law (they knew of the law that allows that an employee whose temporary contracts are renewed beyond four years  be entitled to a permanent contract) I, if that had been me, would have been terrified. Employment law is law isn't it? If you break it (e.g. by not following grievance procedures or conciliation procedures to resolve disputes - and they claim that a dispute 'caused' the situation) can you be charged with something? It would have scared me. I wouldn't have been able to chat and laugh with my fellow board members sitting either side of me as if we were all bravely doing our duty. I would have been mortified. Still, maybe they were mortified but just not showing it.
A motion for a vote of no confidence in the Board was carried by a massive majority. Four stalwart members were put forward as co-optees to this lamentable board - I don't envy the three that the board now has to choose but I take my hat off to them. Somehow this all has to result in a new Board being elected. The current board has resigned with effect from September (the 1st I think it was was it?) - - but that still leaves rather a lot of scope for them to DO things. Maybe they won't excercise this option.

No-one Expects The Poetry Requisition....

I received this message by email yesterday (Sunday) from Anne-Marie Fyfe, Organiser of coffee-house poetry at the troubadour www.coffeehousepoetry.org
It reads -
Dear Poetry Supporters

Something of a one-off - but a necessary response to all those who've written to this address or via the website asking for more info on the present Poetry Society crisis, and asking particularly what members and others can do.

For those who haven't seen the press reports, the present Board (my term as Chair ended in 2010, I'm afraid, though I'm still a member as I've been for twenty-something years) introduced significant structural changes with the result that the Director, President and Finance Officer resigned.

Since the dispute attracted media attention, the Board's Chair, one Trustee, and an Honorary Vice-President have also resigned and, baffled by mismanagement, lack of consultation and total secrecy on the changes, a group of 500-ish members have petitioned for (or requisitioned) an Extraordinary General Meeting (to which they're legally entitled, being more than 10 per-cent of the membership) at which to ask the Board for an account of events: this has been agreed and scheduled for 22nd July in London, but is being misrepresented in some quarters.

I can tell you all that it isn't about a dispute between the Society's Director and its magazine editor, or about how the latest, increased, Arts Council grant is to be allocated. It is simply about Board mismanagement and lack of consultation with the membership.

So I really would encourage anyone who's interested in supporting the widest possible range of poetry, both in the Society's flagship 'Poetry Review' and/or in live readings, who values the Society's 'educational' activities as much as 'promotion' and 'enjoyment' of poetry, who reads famous and not-so-famous poets, from both large and small publishers, who wants to ensure that ordinary members aren't sidelined - to join, if you haven't already done so, the requisitioners (who include Poet Laureate, Carol-Ann Duffy) by e-mailing organiser Kate Clanchy (kateclanchy@gmail.com) and she'll give you details and if you can't be with us in person on 22nd, how to organise a proxy before Tuesday evening.

If you're not already a member, and you care about poetry, this is the time to join, so e-mail Kate Clanchy and she'll advise.

Liars' League Events are Fun

This is the venue - downstairs at The Phoenix, Cavendish Square and here the audience members are beginning to to filter in and take their seats There was a delicious aroma of food as people arrived and ordered their supper - maybe they had come straight from work. I had. But I ordered a pint of Peroni.

The audience was remarkably literary and well-read. I didn't get a look-in at the book quiz, while I ransacked my brain for the answer, hands were shooting up and I didn't even know the answer to most of the questions. Must do Better.

The Liars' League website promised
                                                                            '..... swingers and assassins, curry in New York and sexy pants in suburbia, not to mention a burning building or two ... plus our infamous literary quiz, the chance to win some steamy FREE books, and bargain wine all night - all for a measly fiver...'


and that was all true. It was great. Last night the theme was 'Hot and Bothered' and the steamy stories sweltered to their sticky ends in a most satisfactory manner provoking laughter and appreciation, concentration and applause. The actors were superb, the stories came to life and if that isn't fun what is?

Come and See Me at Liars' League!

What could be more fun than listening to some excellent actors performing stories for you while you sit in comfort, surrounded by friends, sipping wine (or a manly ale)? Nothing could. So here is the opportunity. Tell all your friends and come along to 'Hot and Bothered'
It's the next Liars' League event at:
The Phoenix, 37 Cavendish Square, London
and it's on Tuesday July 12th, 7.30 pm.

Here's the line-up - with ME in it! (order of reading may differ):

- Underneath by Erinna Mettler NEW AUTHOR
- Brothers' Eyes and Curtain Rods by Robert Long NEW AUTHOR
- This Isn't Heat by Richard Smyth
- Pampas Grass by James Holden NEW AUTHOR
- Kenny by Frances Clarke NEW AUTHOR

Liars' League and White Rabbit

I found out about these spoken word events at a workshop back in March and had my story Resting and Sighing in Between selected for White Rabbit's  June edition of  'Are You Sitting Comfortably' in Brighton. How fab is that venue? I did take my coat off in the end and maybe you can't make them out but those are cakes and jelly babies on the table. (There is more about the event on the 'work in progress' page) and I have just heard that my story Kenny has been picked for the July event of Liars' League so I am beside myself with excitement. That too is mentioned on the other page and I will report back after on how it goes.

Fancy a new paperback? I did

I want to read Rose Tremain's short stories so I went on Amazon and bought The Garden of theVilla Mollini and other stories and then... once my shopping frenzy had subsided (I bought The Great Lover by Jill Dawson and a book by Louis de Bernières as well)



 then, I searched for myself. Oh I know; very vain indeed. Anyway, as well as the Kindle edition, there is now also a paperback edition of The Glassblower's Daughter available. Weirdly however, your options are either to choose a new copy for £9.50 and free delivery, or a USED copy for £12.90 with p&p extra.

visual arts/writing projects

I'm really pleased! My story Tentacle has been selected to accompany this painting by the Wiltshire based landscape artist Nick Andrew in an exhibition called 'Land, Sea, Sky' in Winchester which is being held in the art gallery at the Winchester Discovery Centre from the end of this month to July.



: Rilla, Nick Andrew. (Part of Hampshire County Council's Art collection)

There Are Various Things On This Blog

I am too cautious to be much of a blog-writer.
I'm better at reading them. The first one I ever read was Miss Snark, Literary Agent which became an addiction.
One I like at the moment is Bruce Banner's Poetry http://brucebannerspoetry.blogspot.com/
And Baroque in Hackney is superb

The Glassblower's Daughter

  Greta's life is carefree until the abrupt disappearance of her elder sister, and all her courage can't save her from the sinister shadows that engulf her. Even when she finds a way out betrayal and treachery threaten her.

Published as an e-book by Smashwords. http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/30274

This is a wonderful first novel and Greta is a winning heroine. The writing is powerful, lyrical and funny. Read this one!

 [Rebecca Smith, author of  A Bit Of Earth (Bloomsbury 2007)]



Unusual Salami and Other Stories

 published as an e-book by Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/35506

With humour ('Imaginary Col')or strange lyrical horror (the title story) the characters in this collection struggle to make sense of life with sometimes dreadful consequences. Greg is weirdly empowered by reading a book, Anna escapes an enchantment (or does she?) God creates the world and Arkle is... well, Arkle. Although what IS that raggy brown stuff under the tree in 'Pneumonia'?

Available in paperback at Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=unusual+salami+and+other+stories 

A great collection from Frances Clarke, I loved The Glassblower's Daughter (if you haven't read it yet, then you must), and these stories were every bit as good.

Mark Chisnell http://www.markchisnell.com/ 

author of Spanish Castle To White Knight (Dakini Media 2010)