Monday, June 28, 2021

BAD IDEA reviewed by Steve Hanson in The Manchester Review of Books

Steve Hanson, the editor of Some Roast Poets poetry magazine, and excellent The Manchester Review of Books (I call it ‘The Chester View of Books’ because of the way the cover folds over!) has reviewed my Bad Idea alongside Adrian Clarke’s Euromancer. It’s good to be there with my old comrade from Floating Capital days – and a good friend. Thanks Steve ...

 The review, in the Manchester Review… is here: The Problem of England | (wordpress.com)

and (now) in the paper version of the journal, on the first (unpaginated) page of Issue 7: Summer 2021.


I blushingly delighted in the statement, ‘It is utterly brilliant’, of course, but I was particularly tickled by: ‘This book is the sound a man of enlightenment and renaissance makes as he sees the long rich curve of knowledge – our real ‘heritage’ – being flushed clean down a political shitter.’ Quite.

Here are links (to links) to poems, from Bad Idea, which are versions of Michael Drayton’s renaissance sonnets. See here: https://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2019/12/robert-sheppard-two-more-poems-from-bad.html

One of these poems, first published in International Times, I read on this video, recorded this afternoon (just for you!):




There’s a general post on Bad Idea here . (The final part of Bad Idea is slightly different; called ‘Idea’s Mirror’; that’s described here: https://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-last-ideas-mirror-post-election-poem.html ). That'll give you the idea, the bad idea.

I am also delighted to say that Bad Idea is available from Knives Forks and Spoons, as is Adrian’s book, so you may buy it HERE and NOW:  https://www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/product-page/bad-idea-by-robert-sheppard-102-pages

Read the first review of Bad Idea, by Alan Baker, in Litter here: Review - "The English Strain" and "Bad Idea" by Robert Sheppard | Litter (littermagazine.com)

 Read the second, by Clark Allison, here, on the Tears in the Fence website: HERE: https://tearsinthefence.com/2021/04/27/the-english-strain-shearsman-books-by-robert-sheppard-bad-idea-kfs-press-by-robert-sheppard/

Here's one by Billy Mills: The English Strain and Bad Idea by Robert Sheppard: A Review | Elliptical Movements (wordpress.com)

 I write about Adrian’s earlier work here: Pages: Robert Sheppard: My review of Adrian Clarke's Austerity Measures on Stride plus further notes, thoughts and links

Friday, June 25, 2021

How to buy The English Strain books one and two together

 


As is obvious from a lot of posts on this blog, The English Strain and Bad Idea – my two new more or less simultaneously published texts – are part one and two of the longer sonnet transposition project ‘The English Strain’. They belong together, are probably best both read together. Or can be. They certainly have been reviewed together. The best place to purchase both of the volumes in one or two clicks is not with the presses’ sites (which I would normally advocate), but through The Book Depository:

The English Strain (Shearsman) is available here:

https://www.bookdepository.com/English-Strain-Robert-Sheppard/9781848617469?ref=grid-view&qid=1624618269968&sr=1-13

Bad Idea (Knives Forks and Spoon) is available here:

https://www.bookdepository.com/Bad-Idea-Robert-Sheppard/9781912211746?ref=grid-view&qid=1624618185198&sr=1-11

(They have many of my other books available too, including the critical ones, and I noted 13% off the price of Twentieth Century Blues!)  

There are many inter-linked posts about ‘The English Strain’. Here are two comprehensive ones, each with further links to earlier stages of the project, one that looks at Book One, The English Strain here (written after I’d completed it but before it found its title!).

There’s another post on Book Two, Bad Idea here . (The final part of Bad Idea is slightly different; called ‘Idea’s Mirror’; that’s described here: https://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-last-ideas-mirror-post-election-poem.html ).

Book three, British Standards, remains unpublished, but may be read about here: https://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2021/04/transpositions-of-hartley-coleridge-end.html

 



 Above: a composite image that wasn't used as the cover of The English Strain. This one has me in the composite, but I made it blurry. In the end the state before this one was used. I'm fascinated that Barrett Browning's eyes show through so strongly. The second is the image for the cover, as used, to Bad Idea. Patricia Farrell produced both of these startling images. 

 Read the first review of both volumes, by Alan Baker, in Litter here: Review - "The English Strain" and "Bad Idea" by Robert Sheppard | Litter (littermagazine.com)

 Read the second, by Clark Allison, here, on the Tears in the Fence website: HERE: https://tearsinthefence.com/2021/04/27/the-english-strain-shearsman-books-by-robert-sheppard-bad-idea-kfs-press-by-robert-sheppard/

Read a third review, by Steve Hanson, of Bad Idea on its own, in the Manchester Review of Books, here:

Pages: BAD IDEA reviewed by Steve Hanson in The Manchester Review of Books (robertsheppard.blogspot.com)