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Some Background and Reviews
Notes for Lighting a Fire (2012), if you discount my book of prose poems about wild birds, Aves, from 2007, is my first book of poetry since Madame Fi Fi's Farewell in 2003. It is a 64 page hardback in a slightly larger format known as American Royal.
The book has been well served by reviewers, including Rory Waterman (The TLS), Alison Brackenbury (New Walk Magazine), William Bedford (Acumen), Martyn Crucefix (Magma) and John Lucas (Critical Survey), an extract from whose long review can be read in jpegs 6 and 7 below. The notice by Jen Hadfield in The Edinburgh Review gives a somewhat imbalanced impression of the collection in that its discussion entirely omits mention of the poems about family which comprise the middle section, and in some ways is as much about the reviewer as about the book; nonetheless it is an interesting and genuine response.
Click on the thumbnails to read print reviews: 1. From the TLS. 2. From New Walk Magazine. 3. From Acumen. 4. From Magma. 5. From Edinburgh Review. 6 and 7. From Critical Survey.
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Read three online reviews of the book:
Buy the book from HappenStance Press's website.
The front cover
A sample page