Book Reviews

Slightly abstract painting in block colours, Yellow, beige, green, grey, sky blue, representing a building, the sky with a sun or a moon and a single window. oh, and some bricks

Whichever life we live, it’s the other calls

Carl Tomlinson reviews Hotel Anonymous by Mike Barlow (Pindrop, 2021)

Kind ofd abstract blocky design in blue and grey with a pause icon in a orange circle in the centre.

Selected Ambient Works

Bruno Cooke reviews You've got so many machines, Richard: an anthology of Aphex Twin poetry, edited by Rishi Dastidar and Aaron Kent (Broken Sleep, 2022)

looks like a sculpture of a red haired woman with wings (angel or dragon?) holding on to the left arm of a male figure.

I would make a language out of this

Stephen Payne reviews Speechless at Inch by James Caruth (Smith|Doorstop, 2021)

uneven red nearly vertical stripes on a white background. The words "Eat or we both starve" run across the page in a blue uppercase font, the text has a white background which bisects the red stripes.

Statues to honour hunger

Fiona Moore reviews Eat Or We Both Starve by Victoria Kennefick (Carcanet, 2021)

Collage style illustration off a man made up oaf various images including flowers and butterflies, the predominant colour is red, and he is on a black background which has a number of butterflies and a Passion flower

This is the naming of trees / this is a series of flames / this is watching you all disappear

Clare Best reviews All the Men I Never Married by Kim Moore (Seren, 2021)

Oil painting of a woman dressed in blue holding a baby. She is sitting in front of the ocean and looks like she may be eating a biscuit. Looks like the child may also be eating a biscuit too. The predominant colours is blue.

To make the unbearable more manageable

Carl Tomlinson reviews Where the Birds Sing Our Names, An Anthology for Tŷ Hafan (Seren, 2021) edited by Tony Curtis

portion of book cover showing a painting of a long haired person, blue in colour with what appears to be smoke issuing from a hole in the forehead and also the mouth. the figure has a gold halo.

Rippled ink

Charlotte Gann reviews Be Feared by Jane Burn (Nine Arches, 2021)

Black and white image of young people at an anti Nazi rally, they are carrying banners with "stop the nazis" and "stop racist attacks"

That red light in the darkness

Book Review: Alan Buckley reviews The Kids by Hannah Lowe (Bloodaxe, 2021)

Colourful almost paisley image with curving floral designs in the foreground on a background of blue white with brown tendril like patterns

When you are being eaten by vultures they will leave your face alone

Hilary Menos reviews Jongleur by Rennie Parker (Shoestring, 2021)

collage art incorporating a mans back, a woman's leg, various plants, a lobster claw , a turtle shell and a fly agaric mushroom. All on a pale blue background.

This well-mannered patch of green, flecked with red

Carl Tomlinson reviews This Fruiting Body by Caleb Parkin (Nine Arches, 2021)

Bad Betties written in black curly script on a white background there are some footprints and nude female silhouettes a candle and a broomstick.

Do girls not have fangs?

Bruno Cooke reviews The Book of Bad Betties (Bad Betty, 2021) edited by Vanessa Kisuule and Anja Konig

Black and white image showing mathematical drawings and equations.

Let trigons be trigons

Mat Riches reviews The Windmill Proof by Stephen Payne (HappenStance, 2021)