My Family and Other Birds by Rod Whitworth

​"Rod Whitworth has the rare and enviable gift of writing poems which both enlighten and entertain: prepare to meet a kleptomaniac magpie and fellow avians; gorgeous hymns to trees, cycling and the power of jazz; intimate, loving recollections of his parents, other forebears and friends; and a delightful sequence of love-poems to his partner. Be cheered by these poems, in the knowledge that otherwise, as Whitworth wisely says, ’there can be too much silence.’ My Family and Other Birds spans the length of his life experience, but is as fresh and contemporary as any collection you will read this year."
— Matthew Paul.

ISBN: 9781913329952
Paperback, 84 pages, RRP £10.50

"This is a wonderful book. The work of a skilful but unshowy writer, it is imaginative, open, honest and shrewd, and many other things besides, like funny and angry and loving -- a chronicle in fully realised individual poems of lives and times.  It's a very big book too, far bigger than its size -- but not to worry, because it's so compellingly written that it's also that rare thing, a poetry page-turner.  Wonderful."
— ​Peter Sansom, poet and co-director of The Poetry Business.
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My Family and Other Birds is available from the author at [email protected] or to order from us using the payment button below. (We regret that since Brexit we cannot accept orders to non-UK/Ireland addresses and can only repay 90% of the cost of an order made in error, to cover a handling charge on the refund.)

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ROD WHITWORTH

Born in Ashton-under-Lyne in 1943, Rod Whitworth has done a number of jobs, including teaching maths (for 33 years) and working in traffic censuses (the job that kept him on the streets). He currently works as a medical rôle-player.

Rod has been writing poetry for a few years and has had work published in The North, Magma, Poetry Salzburg Review, The Cannon’s Mouth, The Journal, Pennine Platform, Allegro, Fenland Poetry Review, London Grip, Obsessed with Pipework and The Poetry Village. His poems have appeared in a number of anthologies including those of Live Canon, Fly on the Wall Press and Dempsey & Windle, as well as being displayed in Manchester Cathedral and Nostell Priory. He has won prizes and commendations in several competitions.

He now lives in Oldham and is still tyrannised by commas.