Remembering Ourselves: Review of The Country Between Us by Carolyn Forché

As Carolyn Forché’s The Country Between Us is reissued by Bloodaxe Books, Soumyaroop Majumdar discovers that there is not much separating ourselves in 2019 from the poet who witnessed the violent history of El Salvador four decades ago. Carolyn Forché’s 1981 collection The Country Between Us, containing accounts of her time in El Salvador in...

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A Puck of Poetry: Review of Mischief, by Peter Bennet

Peter Bennet’s latest collection, Mischief, takes readers from rural Northumberland to the aisles of Tesco, blending classical references with contemporary wit along the way. Soumyaroop Majumdar reviews. There is a lot to be said about the ordering of a collection, and with the very first poem, ‘The Place I am’, Peter Bennet pitches into the...

Herd Mentality: Review of The Secret Life of Cows at Durham Book Festival

Having spent many years nurturing her herd in the Cotswolds, Rosamund Young has learned to appreciate the unique personalities of cows. Her book The Secret Life of Cows, which she recently presented at Durham Book Festival, argues that these intelligent animals speak to society about the need to rethink our habits of consumption. Barbara Dick...

An Acute Adolescence: Review of playtime, by Andrew McMillan

Andrew McMillan's debut poetry collection, physical, was warmly received for its tender portrayal of modern masculinity. His second book, playtime, continues these themes but pushes them into a fraught adult context. Cheryl Julia Lee reviews ahead of Andrew McMillan's appearance at Durham Book Festival on 14th October. Given the bracing intimacy of Andrew McMillan’s writing, it is...

Review of The Song of Hild by Vibeke Vasbo, translated by Gaye Kynoch

Human sacrifice; the belief in wights; Latin. Anglo-Saxon England may seem like a time far removed from our own, but in The Song of Hild, Rachel Fennell encounters a novelised world that, in its treatment of women, remains uncomfortably close to home.  It is 633 A.D and the Northumbrian king, Edwin, has fallen in battle. With...