We often encounter difficulty when trying to reconcile our memories of events with what actually happened. In the almost inevitable mis-match, our mind plays tricks on us, and what we have recently learned and how we have recently lived gets in the way and colours the past. Pressed to recall his own life, the challenge [...]
The hill country of West Somerset is famous for its association with the Romantic poets, Coleridge and Wordsworth, whose Lyrical Ballads (1798) emerged out of their experience of the area and revolutionised English poetry. It was 130 years later that a young teacher, Berta Lawrence, came to live in the same part of the county. [...]
Myths attach themselves to just about everything. This is certainly true in the case of English native trees. Pagan, mystical or religious, some of these are well-known, but others are more obscure. In “The Myths of Native Trees”, Ian Gouge uses fragments from some of these myths as the basis for a suite of poems [...]
A delightfully diverse and unpredictable sequence of poems from a flourishing Yorkshire group of writers, this anthology is the kind of compilation that will have something of appeal to those who think they dislike poetry as well as to those who love it. The power of poetry to move us, make us laugh or shudder, [...]
Life weaves its magic of triumphs and disappointments everywhere, and often those burdened with more than their fair share of tragedy can feel lost and alone. Even in a quiet coastal backwater such as Maunston Quay, people like Lewis Airy struggle with their personal tragedies and grief. And when Anna arrives, evidently trying to come [...]
