I have just added readings of a few selected poems from my collection First-Time Visions of Earth from Space to my podcast "Walking Thru Fire". You can find this episode - and many others! - on Buzzsprout, and it should find its way onto other podcast platforms - such as Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music etc. … Continue reading New Podcast Episode
Category: Reading
“The Field”
Often the challenge with 'portmanteau' novels such as Robert Seethaler's "The Field" is one of maintaining a cohesive narrative thread throughout the work in order to prevent it from fragmenting into discrete and inadequately connected portraits. The premise behind "The Field" - the deceased, all buried in the same graveyard in a small European town, … Continue reading “The Field”
“The Angels of L19”
It is difficult to like Jonathan Walker's "The Angels of L19" - in the sense of the novel giving you a warm, comfortable, fuzzy feeling - but impossible not to admire it. Without doubt it is a real pressure-cooker of a book: intense, unrelenting, dark, ominous, ambiguous, challenging. Perhaps the latter most of all. Not … Continue reading “The Angels of L19”
“In the Night Wood”
You know those TV programmes that are naturally about 45 minutes long but which, in order to fit them into a schedule, are padded out to fill an hour? Well, Dale Bailey's "In the Night Wood" struck me as a little bit like that: it would perhaps have benefitted from being a little shorter, losing … Continue reading “In the Night Wood”
New “Walking Thru Fire” Podcast Episode
I have just added a reading of the first chapter of my 2019 novel, At Maunston Quay, to my podcast "Walking Thru Fire". You can find the episode immediately on Buzzsprout, and it should find its way onto other podcast platforms - such as Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music etc. - in the next 24 hours … Continue reading New “Walking Thru Fire” Podcast Episode
“The Dressing-Up Box”
David Constantine's collection of short stories, "The Dressing-Up Box", is, in many ways, unlike any other volume of short stories I have ever come across. Many of the narratives are slightly surreal, other-worldly, and in some cases the stories fail to follow the beginning-middle-end convention - not that there's any problem in that at all … Continue reading “The Dressing-Up Box”
“Walking Thru’ Fire” Podcast update
I have now published six episodes to my Walking Thru' Fire podcast. Four of these comprise selected readings from some of my poetry collections: Walking Thru Fire (podcast introduction)Collected Poems, 1979-2016Human ArchaeologyPunctuations from History There are also two extracts from my non-fiction work Shrapnel from a Writing Life. I plan to add a new episode … Continue reading “Walking Thru’ Fire” Podcast update
“The Kids”
Well, I couldn't not read it... After all, a poetry book winning the Costa Book of the Year..! When did a poet last win?! (ans. '99 & '96 Seamus Heaney, '98 & '97 Ted Hughes) I needed to know what all the fuss was about. Well, there are some great poems in Hannah Lowe's "The … Continue reading “The Kids”
About open mics…
I have decided I need to reconsider my relationship to the 'Open Mic' i.e. to adjust not only my expectations of what I should expect to get from such events, but what I should contribute too. I might as well say it straight out: Open Mics have nothing to do with good writing. Don't get … Continue reading About open mics…
“Lampedusa”
Perhaps, you could be forgiven for not liking Seven Price's "Lampedusa"; it's slow-paced and - unless you're connected to Southern Italy in some way - the culture that permeates the story may seem a little, well, foreign. But I suggest all that is part of its charm. And it is a charming book. Price paints … Continue reading “Lampedusa”
Ian Gouge - Writer 