Gwyriad: Poems

A personal memory evokes class solidarity in the shadow of Newport’s transporter bridge. A search for a seat in a crowded café reveals a life of courage and loss. An answerphone message reflects the uncertainties and embarrassments of personal relationships, and a visit to the circus becomes a metaphor for changing times. At the heart of this volume, ‘Y Fenni/Fishponds’ depicts inmates and staff at the mental hospitals in Abergavenny and Bristol.

In award-winning writer Nigel Jarrett’s second poetry collection, and second publication with Cockatrice Books, technical skill and broad-ranging intelligence join depth of insight into human nature and an intimate knowledge of the social and industrial history of south Wales.

‘Wonderful… often wily stuff, altogether a pleasure to read.’

Mab Jones, Buzz Magazine

‘Jarrett offers the reader brilliant, driven testimonies to ways of life both gone and carrying on.’

Patricia Mccarthy, Agenda Magazine

‘Brilliance and intrigue of language; an ability to trawl the impassive depths.’

Phoebe Walker, Lunar Poetry

‘Jarrett has wit and a remarkably sustained musical ear.’

Michael Knott, New Welsh Review

‘Striking poetry; different, original, intelligent, wide-ranging.’

Alan Ross, London Magazine

About the Author

Nigel Jarrett is a Welsh writer, a former daily-newspaperman, and a double prizewinner. He won the Rhys Davies award for short fiction and the inaugural Templar Shorts award. His first collection of stories, Funderland, was published by Parthian and warmly reviewed in the Independent, the Guardian, and the Times. Parthian also published his first poetry collection, Miners At The Quarry Pool, described by Patricia McCarthy, editor of Agenda, as ‘a virtuoso performance’. His second full story collection, Who Killed Emil Kreisler?, was published by Cultured Llama in 2016; GG Books brought out his first novel, Slowly Burning, in the same year. Three years later, Templar published his story pamphlet, A Gloucester Trilogy, and in 2022 his fictional memoir, Notes From the Superhorse Stable, appeared from Saron Publishers and his fourth story collection, Five Go to Switzerland, from Cockatrice Books. Jarrett is a regular contributor to Jazz Journal, Acumen poetry magazine, Nation.Cymru, the Wales Arts Review, and other publications. He is included in Story, the Library of Wales's two-volume anthology of 20th- and 21st-century Welsh short fiction. He was for many years chief music critic of the South Wales Argus daily newspaper.

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Paperback: ISBN: 978-1912368464 | Format: 15.2×22.9cm / 6×9” | Length: 126 pages | Price: £9.99.

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