An belated happy publication day to the new poetry collection from Brian Bilston! This little gem of a book was out last Thursday (21st January) so do order now!
I first found Brian Bilston’s poetry on Twitter and loved its clever wordplay – this led me on to his first poetry collection, ‘You Took The Last Bus Home’ and his excellent novel (with poetic interludes) ‘Diary of a Somebody’. I was, therefore, thrilled to be granted an ARC of his new poetry collection by NetGalley and the publisher.
The poetry is – as the title suggests – loosely focused on the theme of love and is exactly what readers have come to expect of Bilston’s poetry – clever wordplay, interesting perspectives, unexpected twists. It is perhaps a little more serious in places than some of his other poetry (and certainly more serious than the ones that are so popular on Twitter). However, it is an enjoyable read – albeit a quick one as it seemed fairly short.
As a Literature geek, I really enjoyed the poems where Bilston riffed on literature from the past, from Shakespeare’s ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (in ‘Cleopatra’) to Wordsworth (‘Status Update: a Lonely Cloud’) to tragic lovers (‘Five clerihews for Doomed Lovers’). However, Bilston is equally comfortable playing around with Mills and Boon novels, Spoonerisms, Brexit and many other incredibly varied ideas.
This is a lively and varied poetry collection that I’d recommend to those who like their poetry humorous. It does have serious messages and will leave you with food for thought, but – above all else – it is entertaining and engaging.
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Header photo with thanks to Rahul Chakraborty on Unsplash.
Oh interesting! I love reading poetry so definitely gotta check out his work. 😀
He is definitely worth a follow on Twitter to see some of his poems – they’re really clever and often funny 😄