REVIEW: ANTONY OWEN’S ‘THE BATTLE’

REVIEW: ANTONY OWEN’S ‘THE BATTLE’

REVIEW: ANTONY OWEN’S ‘THE BATTLE’     Reviewed by Stella Backhouse   When a poet whose reputation rests largely on his powerful critiques of war and its shattering traumatic legacies produces a new pamphlet entitled The Battle, you’d be forgiven for...
REVIEW: ZOE BROOKS’ ‘FOOLS’ PARADISE’

REVIEW: ZOE BROOKS’ ‘FOOLS’ PARADISE’

REVIEW: ZOE BROOKS’ ‘FOOLS’ PARADISE’   Reviewed by Stella Backhouse After two back-to-back years of news so depressing it’s tempting to disengage from it completely, it feels almost other-worldly to revisit 1989, when we awoke every morning eager for whatever fresh...
REVIEW: SUNDRA LAWRENCE’S ‘WARRIORS’

REVIEW: SUNDRA LAWRENCE’S ‘WARRIORS’

REVIEW: SUNDRA LAWRENCE’S ‘WARRIORS’     Reviewed by Stella Backhouse   Sundra Lawrence packs a lot into her Aryamati Poetry Prize 2021-winning pamphlet Warriors, newly published by Fly on the Wall Press. Although the poems cover just twenty brief...
REVIEW: SAM J GRUDGING’S ‘THE BIBLE II’

REVIEW: SAM J GRUDGING’S ‘THE BIBLE II’

REVIEW: SAM J GRUDGING’S ‘THE BIBLE II’     Reviewed by Stella Backhouse   “Your own personal Jesus/Someone to hear your prayers/Someone who’s there.” In 1990, Martin Gore, principal song writer of 80s synth-pop band Depeche Mode, told Spin Magazine that the band’s...