My old friend and Joy of Six colleague Andrea Porter launched A Season of Small Insanities last night at the Maypole in Cambridge, and a very jolly event it was too. While I've been to several launches where the author invited support acts from a few friends, this is the first I can recall where the host's generosity extended to quite so many readers: Ian Cartland, Emily Dening, Fraser Grace, Wayne Hill, Peter Howard, André Mangeot, Helen Mort, and me. Andrea wanted the evening to be "a celebration of poetry" and urged guests to approach readers to buy their books as well as her own.
Guests came from Dublin, London, Bath, Chatteris... The place was packed; people had to keep going out to find more chairs, then face the even bigger challenge of finding somewhere to put them. With Andrea opening and closing each half, the rest of us made an eclectic mix of voices. It's unfair to single anyone out, though several people had the courage to do a hands-free reading, including Helen Mort with work from her forthcoming A Pint for the Ghost, and Wayne Hill who with Deep Frontiers reminded us why he was such a powerful member of Joy of Six, and how we miss him now he's down in the west country. Fraser Grace's Mr Evans illustrated the argument that "performance poetry" is more than an energetic reading. Grace is an actor and playwright (who adapted Andrea's Bubble for Radio 4). Beware actors bearing props. His performance will remain with us even longer than it takes to wash the great smell of Brut out of our togs.
As for Andrea, her book is wonderful. She took us from the absurd and insane, through real tragedy, into celebration of life, finishing with the hilarious and risqué DIY, which she delivers with panache. The poem is in the downloadable sample on Salt's website here (pdf). I like Fraser's comment: "The forensic eye and the killer detail, Porter's poems take you to worlds you deliberately forgot, you emerge feeling stronger, almost heroic - humanity reinforced, always laughing, always hungry for life."
Thank you, Andrea, for a great and generous evening.
3 comments:
Wow, that's a good poem, I think I might have to buy this book... going onto the next Salt wishlist as we speak. Once I have three chosen, I buy. Thanks for the report, and the nudge in that direction!
You're welcome, Barbara. Thanks for stopping by. You won't be disappointed by Andrea's book. The BBC play that arose from Bubble was shortlisted for a Sony Award, and had a fantastic audience response. She has a great emotional range.
It's been wonderful reading a little more about Andrea's launch, Anne. I received A Small Season of Insanities in the post this week and it's a very strong collection, one that I shall return to again and again.
Post a Comment