Thorpeness
There is something richly circumstantial about Alison Brackenbury's poems: they are often rooted in a rural world, or in townscapes which sustain communities and preserve a strong sense of their history and what it gives them.
"Thorpeness" has delicious surprises, among them "Aunt Margaret's Pudding", a rewarding culinary experience based on a black-covered handwritten notebook of recipes from Dorothy Eliza Barnes, "Dot", the poet's grandmother. "When I knew Dot, she was a Lincolnshire shepherd's wife. But, as a young woman, she had been an Edwardian professional cook", the poet explains, making her notebook a resource for the contemporary reader.
The world of nature – birds, plants, weathers – comes alive in poem after poem, but there are also important poems of nurture. Brackenbury belongs in a long line of rural and provincial poets who bring England alive in forms and rhythms of renewal. She is a familiar radio voice, performing her won poems and narrating programmes she has scripted.
"Thorpeness" has delicious surprises, among them "Aunt Margaret's Pudding", a rewarding culinary experience based on a black-covered handwritten notebook of recipes from Dorothy Eliza Barnes, "Dot", the poet's grandmother. "When I knew Dot, she was a Lincolnshire shepherd's wife. But, as a young woman, she had been an Edwardian professional cook", the poet explains, making her notebook a resource for the contemporary reader.
The world of nature – birds, plants, weathers – comes alive in poem after poem, but there are also important poems of nurture. Brackenbury belongs in a long line of rural and provincial poets who bring England alive in forms and rhythms of renewal. She is a familiar radio voice, performing her won poems and narrating programmes she has scripted.
About the author
Alison Brackenbury was born in Lincolnshire in 1953 and studied at Oxford. She now lives in Gloucestershire, where she works, as a director and manual worker, in the family metal finishing business. Her Carcanet collections include "Dreams of Power" (1981), "Breaking Ground" (1984), "Christmas Roses" (1988), "Selected Poems" (1991), "1829" (1995), "After Beethoven" (2000) and "Bricks and Ballads" (2004). Her poems have been included on BBC Radio 3 and 4, and 1829 was produced by Julian May for Radio 3. Her work recently won a Cholmondeley Award.