D & W PUBLISHING - BOOKS, PAMPHLETS AND POEMS
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Wendy Klein

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Wendy Klein studied Drama and English at the University of Utah and San Francisco State University . She left the USA and came to live in England in 1971. Since beginning to write seriously in 1998, she has had many of her poems published and has won numerous competitions. 

Wendy's website is at http://www.wendyklein.co.uk/
LET BATTLE COMMENCE by Wendy Klein
This short film created by Stephen and Wendy Klein, featuring Charles Lauder and Wendy, is a fascinating and valuable introduction to the poems in 'Let Battle Commence' and their context. 
Wendy Klein comments on her pamphlet, which is based on letters from her great-grandfather to his wife during the American Civil War:
'Writing my great-grandfather:

'Just over five years ago, my cousin, the artist Ippy Patterson, sent me 175 pages of letters written by my great-grandfather, Robert Melvin Tarleton Jr, to his mother and to his fiancée, later his wife, Sallie Lightfoot while he was serving as a Confederate soldier. Although I’ve never been much interested in genealogy, I was intrigued with this slave-owning gentleman who had the same name as my paternal grandfather and my own father. As I browsed through the many pages of typewritten text, painstakingly copied from the handwritten originals, I brooded over whether there might be some poems from them. Little did I know how difficult it would be to extract them, to do justice to the many passionate, articulate letters written by my ancestor over that time period, whose beliefs could not have been more different from my own.'
REVIEWS:
‘Wendy Klein's very personal response to the American Civil War offers us a multitude of viewpoints; honest, brutal even, but always laced with an understanding of the frailty of mankind when in combat. A brilliant piece of work.’     — Jonathan Davidson
'Let Battle Commence is as much Klein’s battle with her own ambivalent feelings. In the final poem of the book, ‘Epitaph 2020’ she recounts her southern cousin’s futile battle “to break some cotton off close to the root”, cutting herself in the effort, thus feeling you had stolen something and that you were right to cut yourself in the process, feeling that you, or any of us could ever know the whisper of the pain inflicted in that troubled time, and suffered from still. Klein’s humility and generosity of spirit suffuse this fine account.' 
— Norbert Hirschhorn (London Grip, August 2020)
2020/08/london-grip-poetry-review-wendy-klein-2/
‘Family history is a subject well used by poets, but Klein succeeds in “making it new.” ‘
 --Emily Wills. Artemis Journal
'A no-punches-pulled account of the American Civil War ... The poems are penned around perceptions from our own everyday, films, books, and more recent weaponry, later wars. ...this is desperate reading. As it must be when telling of what becomes part of all wars, famine and disease. No pride or manufactured shame in this ancestry, just a steady recounting of where we have arrived.'
— Sam Smith, The Journal #61
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LET BATTLE COMMENCE by Wendy Klein
​Published 1st April 2020
Paperback, 15 x 21 cm
37 pages
RRP £8.00
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  • Dempsey & Windle
  • SUBMISSIONS
  • Events
  • Authors' pages A-B
    • Veronica Aaronson
    • Derek Adams
    • Timothy Adès
    • Gary Allen
    • Moira Andrew
    • David Ashbee
    • Wanda Barford
    • Ranald Barnicot
    • Kevin Bailey
    • William Bedford
    • Philip Bentall
    • Marc Brightside
    • Trisha Broomfield
  • Authors' Pages C – G
    • Fiona Cartwright
    • Ian Caws
    • Ian Clarke
    • Stephen Claughton
    • Claudia Court
    • David Cooke
    • Alexandra Davis
    • Donall Dempsey
    • Ray Diamond
    • Scott Elder
    • Roger Elkin
    • Wendy Falla
    • Bert Flitcroft
    • Robbie Frazer
    • Dawn Gorman
  • Authors' Pages H - -O
    • Charlotte Harker
    • Richard Hawtree
    • Georgia Hilton
    • Paul Jeffcutt
    • Margaret Jennings
    • Peter W Keeble
    • Wendy Klein
    • Janet Loverseed
    • Jeremy Loynes
    • Valerie Lynch
    • Aiison Mace
    • Kyle McHale
    • Ayelet McKenzie
    • Heather Moulson
    • M.E.Muir
    • Ian Mullins
    • Patrick B Osada
  • Authors' Pages P – S
    • Linda Rose Parkes
    • Mark G Pennington
    • Nicky Phillips
    • Jenna Plewes
    • Ray Pool
    • Harriet Proudfoot
    • Polly Roberts
    • Imogen Russell Williams
    • Julie Sampson
    • Carla Scarano D'Antonio
    • Richard Schwartz
    • Susan Jane Sims
    • Fiona Sinclair
    • Belinda Singleton & Kathryn Southworth
    • Kathryn Southworth
    • Kathleen Strafford
    • Paul Surman
    • Paul Sutherland
  • Authors' Pages T – Z
    • Laura Theis
    • Brad Walker
    • Sue Wallace-Shaddad
    • J S Watts
    • Poul Webb
    • John Wheeler
    • Richard Williams
    • Simon Williams
    • Geoffrey Winch
    • Lynn Woollacott
    • Richard Woolmer
    • Mantz Yorke
    • Damon Young
  • Anthologies
  • COMPETITION
  • Reviews of our books
  • Notes
  • Contact Us