Cultured Llama

We are proud to present our final publication of 2018, The Hospital, by Ben Barton. A film artist and poet, Ben Barton turns his ‘unflinching gaze’ on a long stay in hospital.

In The Hospital, Ben Barton offers slow observations of hospital life. A dead man’s phone rings; a slug encroaches through a gap in the window; a glimpse of the outside world is viewed through an X-ray held up to the light. In amongst the daily humiliations and the public spectacle of the sick and the dying, there are sparks of hope: a nip of whisky from another patient’s hip flask, the cries of a newborn from down the corridor, and one last meal, jab, swab before leaving.

978-1-9164128-2-8. Cultured Llama. PB. 203×127mm. 64pp. October 2018. Poetry. £10.00

We had so many endorsements for this collection, we couldn’t fit them all on the back page of the book. A couple appear below; you can read them all here:The Hospital

Turning an unflinching gaze on the experience of illness and a prolonged stay in hospital, The Hospital connects with the humanity, horror and grace under pressure of both patients and staff. In a beautiful collection that is not without humour, Ben Barton shows that his formidable poetry gifts were not allowed to lie idle in that hospital bed.

Patric Cunnane, poet and organiser of Dodo Modern Poets

Hard-hitting, sensual, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes in your face, these slant nuggets of hospital life are ‘birth and death served together in one meal’.

Graham Burchell, poet

Ben Barton will be launching The Hospital during the Folkestone Book Festival: 18 November, 6.00 – 8.00 p.m. at Steep Street Coffee House, Folkestone. More info on the Events page.

Order Ben Barton’s poetry collection for £10 plus p&p: The Hospital

Postage and packing is free if you order two or more books from this website.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.