JANET HATHERLEY
Reviews
"Janet Hatherley’s On the Road to Cadianda is her first full collection and set in Türkiye. In many poems, the poet is alone, responding to events and images in nature. Tortoises and butterflies feature prominently, swallows and ants make very-nicely-done visual appearances: “baffled … / tap at the light bulb beaks full”, Two swallows; “they follow one line // of grey grouting / between the floor tiles // … // What purpose! / A Roman road beneath my feet”, March of the transparent ants. In another beautiful poem, How to hang out with a dragonfly, the eponymous dragonfly engages with the poet as she swims, to and fro, the length of the pool, with the dragonfly “skimming / above water, as a helicopter on the wing / hovers around a far-flung island”. Several tender and delicate poems draw local scenes and characters in and around Üzümlü, clearly a very special place for Hatherley. Perhaps the star of the show, Hurrem Sonnet Sequence, is in the voice of Hurrem (‘joyful one’) Sultan, 1502-1558, taken from Poland as a slave, later to marry Suleyman, the sultan, and who makes her way to becoming a powerful leader in her own right: “I bid him, stop Crimea’s Khan. He lights the dark, / slows down the Tartar-Turkish slave trade. We work / on Polish truces, an end to war” and the poems include mention of her love for him in poems addressed to him “I have heard from you! Everyone is celebrating your victory, / running from door to door. Baghdad is taken! // One moment with you is enough – return”.
- Anne Stewart
- Anne Stewart
"When I reviewed Janet’s pamphlet in The Journal I said that the only disappointment I had was coming to the end of it. Her On the road to Cadianda has more than compensated. Although I did find one aspect disappointing. The few less successful poems here, those that lacked authenticity, were those where she attempted to follow a rhyming scheme or a particular form. They stand in contrast to all the tightly descriptive free verse which every time drew me in and which I found enchanting thoughout. Because there is a stubborn love at work here, not only of love for humanity, but for all life. Evident especially in her long Hurrem Sonnet Sequence where she imaginatively tells of Hurrem, consort to Suleiman the Magnificent, and of Hurrem’s many efforts to make people’s lives better. Latterly germane too, ‘…What is war’s purpose, / so many drown in its ruin…’ She is unafraid to mix the ordinary with the exotic, or to find the exotic ordinary. When accidentally stuck in a garage’s grotty lavatory she draws solace from Rumi: ‘You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.’This is not a tourist’s view of Türkiye, but it is the Türkiye that I so wish tourists were seeing.
— Sam Smith (owner & editor, The Journal)
— Sam Smith (owner & editor, The Journal)
", Janet Hatherley’s poems are tender, wise, and brilliantly observed. Hatherley, an expert storyteller, combines formal craft with an intense appreciation and respect for the world she finds herself in. [...] The collection includes a stunning sonnet sequence which shifts historical perspective to give a piercing insight into how Hurrem, the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent, carves out a life for herself as a powerful leader from her beginnings as a captured slave. The personal permeates the political and history dances with the present in mesmerising poems that both educate and enchant." — Lisa Kelly (Poet and co-editor of Magma Journal)
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On the road to Cadianda 2024 I. SBN: 978-1-917101-04-2 RRP £9.99 |
Janet Hatherley's books are available to order here, to UK addresses.
For international orders, please contact us or the Author. www.poetrypf.co.uk/janethatherleypage.html THIS PAYPAL BUTTON IS FOR UK ORDERS ONLY |
What Rita Tells Me
2022 I. SBN: 978-1-913329-77-8 RRP £8.50 |
Janet Hatherley’s debut pamphlet What Rita Tells Me is a sharp-eyed portrait of an English sixties’ childhood taking in London and the North, a narrative full of ironies: poignant, grainy and surprising, poems telling it like it was. These are thoughtful pieces about holding it together in difficult times. They are tributes, in particular, to Hatherley’s parents, to whom the book is dedicated.
-- Katherine Gallagher Janet Hatherley's moving poems explore family life and struggles, with a father who has experienced two world wars and a mother who is resourceful in the face of poverty. Hatherley's poems are life-affirming and steeped in social history. [ ...]
Hatherley has a fantastic ear for speech, alive with humour and drama. In a second upheaval - this time as an eleven-year old moving to Sussex - Hatherley captures how poverty singles you out, as when queuing for free school dinners. While family life brings its challenges with illness and hardship, the strong current running through this pamphlet is a celebration of freedom, family and a spirit of adventure. – Lisa Kelly Available to order here, to UK addresses.
For international orders, please contact us or the Author. www.poetrypf.co.uk/janethatherleypage.html THIS PAYPAL BUTTON IS FOR UK ORDERS ONLY |
