JUST ASKING by Bert Flitcroft
Bert Flitcroft was born and brought up in Lancashire but now lives in the Midlands. He has two collections of poetry published: Singing Puccini at the Kitchen Sink and Thought-Apples. His work has appeared in a number of national magazines. He is a prize-winning poet, has been Poet in Residence at the Southwell Poetry Festival and has performed at a number of national festivals including The Edinburgh International Book Festival. He was Staffordshire Poet Laureate 2015–17, and curated the on-line Staffordshire Poetry Collection.
He has worked as resident poet with one of our ‘National Treasures’, The Wedgwood Collection at the V&A; as resident poet with the prestigious R.I.B.A exhibition ‘The Road Less Travelled’; and recently as part of the University of Keel project ‘Labelling the Museum’. |
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“Class-conscious, linguistically alive, wonderfully situated, the poems of JUST ASKING grab us by the scruff of the neck and drag us into their world. Whether their subjects are friends or mushrooms, museums or pumping stations, this is a poetry full of personality, great openings and highly effective endings. 'My life is full of conversations I do not have', says the speaker of one poem, but this writing is full of voices we are grateful to hear. Now comic, now melancholic, always companionable, always insightful, these are highly enjoyable, deeply rewarding poems.”
—Jonathan Edwards “Bert Flitcroft's latest collection, JUST ASKING, is grounded with the poet's acknowledgement of the importance of the personal, the domestic and the intimate. Here King Lear and The Angel of the North rub shoulders in electric storms; Camus philosophises with his wife about football; while Einstein, Mao and Marx sit alongside poems featuring Peppa Pig, Sainsbury's and the Co-op.Whether exploring memories of growing up, the delights of parenthood, the demands of love, the industrial legacy of machinery and engines, the specialness of landscape and the natural world, and the challenge of mortality, Bert Flitcroft uses his finely-honed poetic sensibilities to transform the fleeting and transient into something essentially real and memorable. The fresh imagery and perceptive visual description underpinned by a keen wit reveal a strongly-individual poetic voice, whose wisdom is both worldly and warm. Its honesty, humanity and positivity are exceptional, and make this collection one to savour, cherish and re-read." — Roger Elkin “I enjoyed JUST ASKING for its poetry of conviction, of place, of injustice which is all served up with compassion, and the bite of wit. A hugely enjoyable experience which I’d recommend to all who seek a complex appreciation of our beloved isle.” — Daljit Nagra “Bert Flitcroft is an honest, genuine writer - his poems are accessible without being simplistic, honed and well-crafted without being clever, eschewing obscurity in favour of direct and clear human speech which has the ring of true poetry, much in the manner of Edward Thomas and Robert Frost.” — David Calcutt |
'Just Asking' by Bert Flitcroft
ISBN 978-1-913329-35-8 Paperback, 14 x 21cm, 78 pages RRP £10.00 THIS PAYPAL BUTTON IS FOR UK ORDERS ONLY
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