Cultured Llama

Reviews – you wait ages for them, then several arrive at once. We send out books in hope that some will be read, and that the reviewers’ words will find their way back to us. So we were delighted when a whole bunch of reviewers’ words arrived for Cold Light of Morning by Julian Colton. Sara Clark reviewed the book for The Eildon Tree, 26, and called it ‘an enormously significant book’. Here is an extract of Sara’s review:

Take any three lines from any one of the poems from this collection and you have a fresh lesson in how to put into practice the age-old adage “Show not tell” – a phrase Colton perfectly encapsulates in his poem of the same name, and exemplifies in this collection. Not only does he “capture the abstract” – he holds it out for us to name as our own, despite the deeply personal nature of his subjects. And in doing so, he has made his craft into art.

Thomas Clark describes Cold Light of Morning as:

his best yet, and one of the strongest to emerge from the Borders in quite some time.

You can buy a copy for £8 plus p&p at the book’s page: Cold Light of Morning

Postage and packing is free when you buy two books or more, so if poetry is your thing, why not add in a copy of Richard Thomas’s The Strangest Thankyou? Richard is interviewed by Robert Garnham about his debut poetry collection and his forthcoming book, Zygote Poems, and reveals that mums like his poetry. Robert prefaces the interview:

His first published book, The Strangest Thankyou, came out almost two years ago now. It contained some wonderful poems including the delightful ‘Flamingo’ as well as more serious pieces, and others written after trips to Rome. I read the book twice over the course of two days, and then my mother borrowed it too. I was jealous that the cover was orange, because Frank O’Hara’s book Lunch Poems also has an orange cover!
One of the things I really admire in Richard is that he is so very different to almost any other performer both in his style of reciting, and in his subject matter. To watch or read Richard is to visit a strange new world, only to realize at the last moment that it’s a world you’ve always known.

Later, Richard says:

Thanks, Robert. I remember you telling me your mum enjoyed it, too. Three of my friend’s mums have read it. And I think just one of those three friends has read it themselves (yourself). It’s good to know your audience. Perhaps that is why my new book is a collection – a pamphlet – of poems about babies. A subconscious effort to satisfy my target market. But seriously, it’s a little more than about babies, though it is that. Zygote Poems is about a young man’s journey in to the unfamiliar realms of fatherhood with the effects of anxiety. It uses phonetic language to both convey that effect, and at the same time mimic ‘baby talk’. There are some other fun techniques employed, but I guess I shouldn’t give too much away. Selling poetry books is hard enough. I think, though, this new pamphlet is my most focussed poetry so far.

Read the full interview here.

Zygote Poems will be available very soon – watch this space.

Click at the link to buy a copy of The Strangest Thankyou for £8 plus p&p.

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