Midas Touch and Snow in Tallinn

I was very pleased that my copies of Midas Touch arrived just before Christmas. The last day of deliveries, actually. So I had them in time to give a few as Christmas presents to local friends. I´m really pleased with the quality of the production and the effect of the cover picture is great. A big thanks to both Adele Ward for her editing work and Mike Fortune-Wood for the artwork and layout. There are a couple of poems from the collection behind the link in the right-hand column of this blog.

Further details and orders from the publisher´s website:

http://www.wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-poetry-mh-mt.htm

We spent a lovely weekend in Tallinn last week where there was some serious snow:

Getting about in the old town was a slippery business. They can´t use machines to clear the snow on many of the streets because they´re so narrow and cobbled stoned. It looked lovely though. Great atmosphere.

And of course, I visited my favourite ceramic workshop and bought a new piece. This is by Urmas Puhkan:

Urmas explained that he made this piece early last summer, just at the end of the academic year when he was whacked after a very busy term of teaching and grading students´ work. When it was finally all finished he said that he felt exhausted and his feelings came out in the statue that he was making at that time, this one. Lovely, isn´t it?

The workshop and gallery of Asuurkeraamika is in a new location in a tower that is part of the medieval town wall round the old town. It´s a perfect location. The address, Kooli str 7, is the street behind the tower but there´s no door from the street; the entrance is from the park on the outside of the city wall. Their website has a map and pictures of several of their pieces.

http://www.asuurkeraamika.ee/indexeng.htm

Good News

http://www.wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-poetry-mh-mt.htm

Midas Touch has arrived from the printer. I´ve heard that some readers in the UK have already received their copies. Deliveries of orders outside Britain may take a little longer because of the Christmas rush and the bad weather. My copies are currently somewhere between North Wales and Finland.

For readers of this blog who are based in Britain, I will be reading poems from Midas Touch in Camden Town on Friday 7 January together with Ann Alexander, who will be reading from her new collection, Too Close, which is also published by Ward Wood Publishing.

The event is in aid of Cold Weather Shelters and the entrance fee (£5 / £4) supports that work. The address is: Trinity United Reform Church Hall, 1 Buck Street, Camden. It´s very close to Camden Town underground station and the doors open at 18.30.

I´m looking forward to meeting all those who are able to get there.

More on Sofi Oksanen´s `Purge´

I´ve just found some very interesting comments about Sofi Oksanen´s novel, Purge, on a blog on The Economist´s website. The blog refers to criticism that Oksanen´s novel misrepresents the realities of life in Estonia during the Soviet era, which I can believe is true, though my experience is very limited (I do have some). The counter argument is that the novel does not aim to be a fully inclusive representation of life in Estonia during the Soviet period, which I can also agree with. Perhaps the issue, then, is to decide whether the events portrayed might possibly have happened in the place and at the time the novel situates them. It´s an interesting debate and this blog presents the two sides very clearly:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2010/10/sofi_oksanen

Midas Touch slight delay

I´ve just heard from the publisher, Ward Wood Publishing, that my new poetry collection, Midas Touch, has been slightly delayed coming from the printer. It´s expected to be delivered next week. Okay, just keep holding your breath everyone.

London Sights Part 3

The most famous art galleries in London must be The National Gallery and The Tate Modern, but one of my favourite galleries in any city, and one that I always visit when I´m in London, is The Wallace Collection. It´s located in Hertford House, Manchester Square, not far from Baker Street. It certainly is not an unknown destination for art lovers, but I suspect that it may well be unfamiliar to foreign and infrequent visitors to London and it´s well worth a visit.

The collection is housed in what used to be the family home of the Hertford family. The collection was formed over several generations of that family and on the death of the last owner´s widow, Lady Wallace, in 1890, the house and entire collection was bequeathed to the nation. The terms of the bequest state that the collection must remain entire. That means that nothing can be added or removed. Everything you see is as it was when Lady Wallace died.

It is an astonishing collection. The whole building - and it´s not small! - is filled with art objects. It´s difficult to believe that anyone actually had room to live there. The collection comprises not only paintings, but also sculpture, furniture, clocks, porcelain, armour and weapons. Everyone has their own preferences and favourites, of course. Mine include the wonderful 18th century French paintings, especially by Boucher and Fragonard, the Sevres porcelain (I just love those colours) , the highly ornate 18th century furniture, the many romantic, Arcadian scenes and the portraits by Reynolds, Gainsborough and Lawrence, including the wonderful, Margaret, Countess of Blessington. One of the most famous paintings in the collection is The Laughing Cavalier.

This brief list only scratches the surface. There´s an awful lot more to see. But in addition to the works of art, the house is worth visiting in itself. It´s such a wonderful setting for an art collection. The house is built round a central courtyard which is used as a lunch and snack restaurant. It´s a great place to stop for a coffee, a glass of wine, or a full meal. The courtyard has a glass roof, so rain is not a problem.

The Wallace Collection is open everyday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.almost every day of the year and entry is free. The website has further details:

http://www.wallacecollection.org/

Midas Touch cover

This is the cover of my poetry collection, Midas Touch, which is due out from Ward Wood Publishing at the end of November. Mike Fortune-Wood has done a great job with it and I´m really pleased with the effect. The view of mountains relates very well to the content of the poem, Crossing The Alps, and there are other poems in the collection where mountains and other landscapes appear. The cover image also suggests a mirror hanging on the wall, as if the mountain scene is actually a reflection and I especially like that effect because mirrors, along with windows and glass in various contexts, are recurring images in the collection.

There´s further information about the book at the publisher´s website:

www.wardwoodpublishing.co.uk

A Poem From Midas Touch

I´ve been looking at cover images for my poetry collection, Midas Touch, which is due to be published by Ward Wood Publishing at the end of November. Mike Fortune-Wood has picked out a number of possible images and we´ve been discussing which is the best. I think we´re almost there now and I´m looking forward to seeing how the book´s actually going to look. As soon as Mike has it ready, I´ll post it on my blog. In the meantime, here´s another poem from the collection.

Crossing The Alps

Two hours out of the village

I´d climbed the mountain´s shaded side

two months deeper into winter.

Coarse grass was brown, ground water

had flowed over the path

and frozen. I stopped.

The smooth sheet sloped down,

curled round the overhang, drips

falling onto rocks in the gully.

I put one foot on the ice,

shifted my weight, hesitated,

then moved my other foot forward.

Five steps carried me over, my pulse racing.

I stood on the brink, dislodging pebbles

and knew I had no way back.

As I climbed higher, peaks

reared up behind the black

ridgeback. Cresting it,

I toppled into the new view. Bank

behind bank of ice anchored on stone

all the way to Italy.

The village I´d left,

tethered to the foothills

by a winding cord of tarmac.