Singing in the Dark
Alison Brackenbury's ballads for the modern world sing with a truth and directness that reach back through Edward Thomas and John Clare to the English folk-tradition itself. There are poems about birds and animals, the ancient rhythms of weather, landscape and season. The modern world is held in balance: terrorism, foreign war and domestic tension.
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.
Reviews
"Enchants" – The Times
"Glorious" – Gillian Reynolds, Daily Telegraph
"Filigreed with images of light and dark throughout, it's evocative, amusing and utterly compelling" – Frances Lass, Radio Times
"Glorious" – Gillian Reynolds, Daily Telegraph
"Filigreed with images of light and dark throughout, it's evocative, amusing and utterly compelling" – Frances Lass, Radio Times