‘A Name Writ in Water’ by Richard Boden is a beautifully written, touching novel, which provides the reader with an un-romanticised picture of the Romantic poet, John Keats’, who is embarked on a final voyage to Italy in search of a cure for his consumption. Based on extensive research, it never falls into the trap of becoming a mere biographical account of listed events and places. Rather, it conducts the reader on an imaginative journey, through the personal experiences of its characters, and into another believable historical time. This is a debut of impressive quality that combines a mastery of style and vocabulary with an impressive insight into human nature. The plot evolves around four main characters all of whom carry with them an emotional baggage from the life they have left behind: Keats, his unconsummated love for Fanny Braun; Joseph Severn, Keats’ companion, the disapproval of his father; the seventeen year old, consumptive, Miss Cotterell, a yearning for a life she will never have; and Mrs Pidgeon, Miss Cotterell’s chaperon, embittered by the loss of a war of her war-damaged husband and reliance on her brother’s demanding charity. Each regards Italy, with varying degrees of optimism, as a possible…
It’s nine weeks now since the coronavirus lockdown began and I feel cut off both geographically and culturally from anywhere. The occasional glimpses of the mud brown Bristol Channel through the trees and the accents of the few people I meet on my daily walk assures me I’m still in Wales. And even though I should have left already for France, I don’t feel as if I’m in any place but marooned in a neither here nor there sort of Neverland. Cardiff is just down the road from the seaside village where I have an apartment, though it might as well be in a post apocalyptic other country. When I was a boy, Cardiff felt more like a large town than a city. It was small minded, conservative and swathed in drab colours, only on International Rugby days did it come alive with noise and excitement, the red and white of scarves and the green of leeks. Now the transformation is total and, as the city climbs skywards, brims with character and energy, and has a friendliness I’ve encountered in no other city in the world. Jill and I only moved back to Wales little over a year ago but…
I wrote this book about ten years ago, partly as a response to the sudden death of my mother-in-law, who’d just turned sixty. Time, then, to get something down. But what? I’d studied Keats closely at university, including the letters and Robert Gittings’ biography and had even written a poem about Keats’ arrival in Naples: to have gone through all that, only to be quarantined for another month. So, after a bit more research, I had my plot and also the ending, which I knew would steer clear of Rome, because Anthony Burgess had written a novel about Keats dying there already. Over a period of two years, in cafes and classrooms [empty ones], I gradually put together a series of scenes describing the journey to Italy. I chose third-person focalised narrative because that offered me both descriptive luxuries and the ability to explore voice/point of view. The hardest part was settling on dialogue that didn’t sound like botched Beau Brummell, so I tried to keep it as simple as possible, in contrast to some lusciousness over river-bank and ocean-wave. In particular, I found I enjoyed writing about the Thames [five years’ hard labour in Grays, Essex helped] and about…
Red Hand Books are please to announce it has entered Jack Alun’s stunning new poetry collection for the Forward Arts Foundation Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection. This prize is sponsored by the Estate of Felix Dennis and offers the winner a prize of £5,000.
Rachel reveals the secrets of bookcover art… Rachel Bennett’s beautiful artwork adorns the cover of our latest novel The Reputation and here she describes the soul and the heart of illustrating… How did you get into becoming a book cover illustrator? Well, there is no single way to become a book cover illustrator, but I do think that my own path was a little unconventional! I started my journey to becoming a book cover illustrator in the very traditional sense… Which was, of course, by studying for my Bachelor’s Degree in Theoretical Physics! Before attending University, I was faced with the difficult decision between studying Physics and Mathematics, two subjects I was extremely fascinated by and passionate about, or attending University to further my knowledge and experience of the art world. I decided to study Physics but continue with my love of art in my spare time, and in that spare time at University, started up my own illustration company called Puffin Prints. It was from my experiences through Puffin Prints, creating my own art and illustrations and putting them out into the world, both online and physically by selling my work in local shops and galleries, and attending networking…
We are so pleased to be able to announce that Bjarni Bjarnason will be speaking about his latest novel, The Reputation which Red Hand Books has just published in English…so if you fancy a fascinating trip to see our Icelandic star he’s on in Berlin on the 9th of September, 2017… For tickets go to the literature festival website ( http://www.literaturfestival.com/tickets) but he’s on in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele in the evening and it should be a very interesting evening…(this link is better in German, but we’ve put the English one as well…) http://www.literaturfestival.com/program-en/literaturen-der-welt-en/2017-en/bjarni-bjarnason-mannord?set_language=en http://www.literaturfestival.com/programm/literaturen-der-welt/2017/bjarni-bjarnason-mannord He’s in amazing company as well with an astonishing array of talent from all over the world.. just have a look at the list on this page.. http://www.literaturfestival.com/programm/literaturen-der-welt if you want a bit more info about Bjarni there is also his BlogSpot to check out: http://www.literaturfestival.com/archive/participants/authors/2017-en/bjarni-bjarnason-1?set_language=en What more could you ask for a weekend in September is an Icelander talking in English about his new translation of a novel about living with the afterlife of the financial crash to lovely people in a German Litfest…? Best of luck to Bjarni.
Further to Tom’s adventures amongst the poetic heartlands, hedonists and difficult breakfasts in Montenegro and Croatia follow him as he heads over to Bulgaria to immerse himself in Sofia’s o’er-brimming literary life… Sunday 31 July There’s a long string of coincidences behind my standing in our hallway with a rucsac full of poetry books, magazines and an English-Bulgarian-English dictionary and with a boarding card for the late-night flight from Bristol to Sofia. The short version is that, in 2013, I read part of my one-man show I Went to Albania at the University of Portsmouth. Afterwards a student came down to the front and asked me if I’d ever been to Bulgaria. Less than six months later I was in Sofia as a guest of Vasilena’s family and talking with her artist sister, Marina, about an online project which would surface in January 2014 as Colourful Star – quite possibly the only Anglo-Bulgarian poetry/visual art project on the internet. Since then I’ve taught myself Bulgarian (at least to read and write – my conversational Bulgarian still suffers from my appalling accent), begun translating Bulgarian poetry and plays and – thanks to an ever-expanding circle of Bulgarian friends – somehow…
Follow Tom’s amazing adventures in the poetic darklands of Montenegro as he tackles the complexities of literary life in the shadows of the recent conflicts… Tom Phillips Wednesday 22 June It’s not yet high season on the Croatian coast, but Dubrovnik Old Town is packed. The three of us – Mary, Peter and I – are on our way to Niksic in Montenegro for a conference on writing and place, but after an early morning flight from a rain-soaked Bristol we’re sneaking a holiday into half a day: seafood lunch, swim, ice-cream. Like the famous bridge in Mostar, much of the Old Town is a reconstruction: sections of neater stonework like scar tissue attest to the destruction wrought by artillery shells lobbed onto the city from the surrounding higher ground. By the breakwater in whose lee people swim, a man and three boys are heaving loose stones from under the city wall and tossing them into the sea. The earnestness with which they do this suggests that this isn’t merely a game; they too are engaged in some form of reconstruction. Nikola’s due to pick us up outside the West Gate in his dark-blue Audi. This is the most tenuous…
As part of launching the new edition of Turkish Poetry Today 2016 we will also be launching for general view the website at www.redhandbooks.co.uk and also unveiling our latest poet to join our ranks…. Mr Richard Boden.. look out for the details of The English Disease in our newsletter in November this year…
Richard Eccles talks about his fascination with the great Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun and his newly edited re-issue of Hamsun’s stunning novel Pan, the first in our Modern Classics Series. If you had to lure a contemporary reader into exploring Knut’s Hamsun’s novels what would you say? Hamsun is in some ways the perfect antidote to modern life and the worst aspects of modern literature. From our perspective in the 21st century he takes us into a magical, remote world stripped down to its most realistic and extraordinary essentials. He is painfully aware of all of the modern challenges, disruptions and psychoses, and describes them in such biblical simplicity that most readers can never forget what they have just read and want more. He is also the least gimmicky of story-tellers and never fails to keep the story and the characters at the heart of every sentence, at the same time as being the most modern of novelists in his themes and understanding of the human condition. And why Pan, why now? Worster’s beautiful translation came out in 1921, just after the First World War. It was the first translation of this novel in to English and is in many…