Sitting Ducks

Blower, Lisa

Fair Acre Press

Wilderland, Wildlife and Wonder from the Shropshire Borders

Fusek Peters, Andrew

The Goldsmith's Apprentice is Keith Chandler's first collection since moving to the West Midlands, an area which, with its industrial and craft heritage, has influenced many of the new poems. As Will Daunt has written in Envoi: "In his craft, Chandler has been patient rather than prolific and is the better writer for it. He has been uncompromising in the development of a style that is literate as it is accessible. He deserves an ever-expanding readership." 'The Goldsmith's Apprentice opens with a wonderful sequence of poems about work. From glassworkers to glass eye fitters, these poems understand the routines and insanities of what people do to earn a crust, revealing with great empathy the impact of industry on lives. This wide-ranging collection moves outwards from there to a broad scope of subjects, from ties to lost campervans, from an old man at the gym to a moving final sequence about a grandchild. Now humorous, now powerful, crammed with good ideas and great endings, these are accessible poems which are deeply engaged with both the ephemera and the big issues of ordinary lives. More than anything, I value them for their great humanity, their understanding of the power of poetry to celebrate the importance of lives lost to history, tough work or a duff education system. To appropriate the ending of a wonderfully moving poem about a nurse, these poems, coming as they do out of the best motivations and the deepest artistic rigour, are The Real Thing: Jonathan Edwards, Winner of The Costa Award for Poetry 'This is a fresh, nuanced and humane collection of poems with its eye and ear to the world - to the world of work in particular, and to the craft of survival. It is a wonderful and generous book. The poems welcome you in and hold your attention with their deftness, attentiveness and joy-in-making.' David Morley, Winner of The Ted Hughes Award

The Goldsmith's Apprentice

Literature & Fiction

Chandler, Keith

Poetry

WINNER of The Saboteur Awards Best Anthology of 2018This book came straight out of a long thread on Deborah Alma's Facebook page in October 2017. Something was released and given a space within social media.  Many women felt emboldened by this to share more difficult stories, more details. As a poet, and an editor, it felt natural to Deborah to collect these stories somehow and it was obvious to collect them as poems. This collection contains mainly previously unpublished work from 80 of our finest poets:Jill Abram, Vasiliki Albedo, Deborah Alma, Jean Atkin, Roberta Beary, Victoria Bennett, Kaddy Benyon, Ama Bolton, Jhilmil Breckenridge, Rachel Buchanan, Jane Burn, Rachel Burns, Cath Campbell, Louisa Campbell, Zelda Chappel, Rachael Clyne, Jane Commane, Meg Cox, Sarah Doyle, Pat Edwards, Alicia Fernández, Rona Fitzgerald, Kate Garrett, Kathy Gee, Georgi Gill, Roz Goddard, Linda Goulden, Vicky Hampton, Sue Hardy-Dawson, Deborah Harvey, Ramona Herdman, AM Hill, Clare Hill, Angi Holden, Rhiannon Hooson, Helen Ivory, Sheila Jacob, Sally Jenkinson, Jemima Laing, Gill Lambert, Dorianne Laux, Claire Leavey, Emma Lee, Liz Lefroy, Pippa Little, Mandy Macdonald, Maggie Mackay, Holly Magill, Sabrina Mahfouz, Sarah Miles, Sarah Mnatzaganian, Kim Moore, Abegail Morley, Helen Mort, Katrina Naomi, Lisa Oliver, Michelle Penn, Pascale Petit, Bethany W Pope, clare e potter, Wendy Pratt, Lesley Quayle, Kathleen M. Quinlan, Amy Rainbow, Natalie Rees, Jess Richards, Victoria Richards, Bethany Rivers, Rosie Sandler, Jacqueline Saphra, Elisabeth Sennitt Clough, Emily Sernaker, Emma Simon, Beth Somerford, Ruth Stacey, Judi Sutherland, Angela Topping, Cathy Whittaker, Natalie Whittaker, Stella Wulf. 

#MeToo: Rallying against sexual assault and harassment - a women's poetry anthology

The last of the light is not the last of the light

Calcutt, David

In response to mental health issues experienced by his two siblings, my father Derek Richter became a noted neuro-psychiatrist and founder of the Mental Health Research Fund (now Foundation). For more than sixty years, the Foundation has funded pioneering research and challenged the status of mental health in the UK. After his death, I inherited hundreds of family letters, diaries and medical notes that are the source of my poems. They reveal how his personal life affected his dedication to discover the cause and treatment of mental illness, and how this became the driving force of his life.

My Darling Derry: Letter-poems about Derek Richter founder of The Mental Health Foundation

Festing, Sally

From Rowan Ridge

Kinsey, Chris

In her version of Europe's oldest dramatic poem, a requiem to a nation's dead in a reckless, fruitless war, Kaite O'Reilly chooses the iambic drumbeat of English blank verse, and a long-lined lyricism that befits an epic lament. The language is modern, the word-music timeless, the rhythms ring with echoes of Elizabethan drama. In this powerful translation, the three voices of the Chorus tell the tragic story in a breathless song of mourning that insists on being heard.

Aeschylus' Persians: A new version by Kaite O'Reilly

O'Reilly, Kaite

This anthology offers a unique insight into the real experiences of the people at the heart of the NHS - from the student nurse at the start of his career to the heart surgeon on the eve of her retirement. We also hear the stories of those whose vital work is often unseen and unsung from domestic cleaning staff to sign language interpreters. The poems offer unflinchingly honest and intimate accounts from the people who care for us from the moment of birth to the end of life. In crystallising the most beautiful and painful moments of being human, they speak directly to all our experience. Above all these poems are about our shared humanity. They are about the compassion and care that lie at the heart of the NHS and in all our lives. They also serve as a stark reminder of the human cost of trying to offer compassionate care in a system that is underfunded and understaffed and the importance of showing the same compassion and support to the staff we depend on to hold the NHS together. Leading UK poets have donated poems to this anthology including Michael Rosen, Roger McGough, Lemn Sissay, Sabrina Mahfouz, Kate Clanchy, Sam Guglani, Charly Cox, Molly Case, Wendy Cope and the estates of UA Fanthorpe, Dannie Abse and Julia Darling. All proceeds from this book will go to NHS Charities Together which supports over 135 official NHS Charities raising money for NHS hospitals, ambulance services, community and mental health services across the UK.

These Are The Hands: Poems from the Heart of the NHS

Steph Morris achieves a fine engagement between affection and refined outrage across a sequence of poems that excited me for their focus on the family and the nation. A hugely enjoyable debut! Daljit Nagra Like the plants he nurtures as a gardener, Steph Morris's poems are fed by a desire to believe the world is a benevolent place; but his jaunty humour and O'Haraesque casualness can often mask his more serious concerns about the environment and our attitude towards it. This is a playful and exuberant debut from a poet with a wonderfully original voice. Tamar Yoseloff

Please don't trample us; we are trying to grow

Morris, Steph

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Fair Acre Press publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Fair Acre Press