Berg

In this first collection from Hilary Menos, icebergs floating down the Thames jostle with transvestites in Singapore, aliens wading the Hudson River and the lively crew from the local slaughterhouse. We go shopping with Ingomar the barbarian and watch Bernard Manning gigging at Totnes Civic Hall. Other poems are populated with characters from fiction; we step off the cartoon cliff with the Road Runner, join Iggle Piggle in a subverted Night Garden, and hitch a lift with the micro-crew on their Fantastic Voyage. Throughout, Menos brings a sophisticated sensibility to her poetry. Her subjects are seen aslant, with ironic as well as tender intentions. She ranges from the intimate and local to the ambitious and far flung, with poems that capture 'elsewhere' set in Paris and Havana and New York, and mini 'ecological' epics, often in the voice of an invented persona, alongside poems about geese and babies and farming life in rural Devon.

ISBN 1854115081   Pages 64 ISBN13 9781854115089 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 91 Publisher Poetry Wales Press   Published in Bridgend Imprint Seren   Height (mm) 216 Format Paperback   Width (mm) 138 Publication date 20 Sep 2009   Spine width (mm) 5 DEWEY 821.92   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

This is someone who reflects an expert at work but has their own vivid way of seeing and acting.A" - Ruth Padel ...crackles with formal skill, with extraordinary, vibrant language ... and with great style ...A" - Carol Ann Duffy She has the rare ability to uncover the wide range of implications of the world we live in, be they emotional, spiritual or literary. Here is a new poet with a full locker of accomplishments. She is sure to make an immediate impact.A" - John Stammers [H]er poetry is infused with an earthy quality and, frequently, a good dollop of humour [ - ] Her poems often take inspiration from everyday objects or events but present them to us in new and surprising guises. This is a compelling and skilfully crafted debut.A" PBS Bulletin

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