Talking Dead

Neil Rollinson

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English

Jonathan Cape Ltd
15 October 2015

Poetry by individual poets

The first book in eight years from 'the bard of the bawdy'

Shortlisted for the 2015 Costa Poetry Prize

Shortlisted for the 2015 Costa Poetry Prize

Like Neil Rollinson's earlier books, Talking Dead is a refreshment of the senses- lifting the lid on the human condition in a heartfelt celebration of the act of being, whether in moments of love or mortality, sex or feasting.

In the central sequence of the book - a meditation on the space between life and death - the dead speak of their final earthly moments with a liberating sense of fascination, and a luminous awe. Elsewhere we enjoy al fresco sex, astronomy via many pints in the Cat and Fiddle, and the deliverance of an Indian monsoon after weeks of thirst and drought. In 'Christmas in Andalucia' two lovers Skype each other achingly across hundreds of miles - 'I am full of loss and longing,' the poet says, 'the heart is hewn from elm and oak and mistletoe.'

As provocative, sensual and subversive as ever, these poems seek and find the numinous in the everyday- some element of ritual or wonder that transforms experience. Although the spectre of darkness is never far away, it is the spirit of pleasure that endures, and we discover to our delight, as D. H. Lawrence did, that the Dionysian finally prevails over the Apollonian.

By: Neil Rollinson
Imprint: Jonathan Cape Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 133mm, Spine: 8mm
Weight: 88g
ISBN: 9780224097291
ISBN 10: 0224097296
Pages: 64
Publication Date: 15 October 2015
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Neil Rollinson has published four collections- A Spillage of Mercury (1996), Spanish Fly (2001), Demolition (2007), and Talking Dead (2015). He won the National Poetry Competition in 1997, received a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors in 2005, and was shortlisted for the 2015 Costa Poetry Prize for Talking Dead. He lives and works in Brighton.

Reviews for Talking Dead

A hugely accessible book of fundamentally human poems. -- Jade Craddock Nudge A hugely accessible book of fundamentally human poems. -- Jade Craddock Nudge Poems of extraordinary delicacy and transcendence. -- Suzi Feay Independent on Sunday As lucid and direct as anything being written today... Every word is subordinated to its purpose: not the display but a mastery of the writing self... Rollinson has an impeccable ear. -- Fiona Sampson New Statesman