Pebble & I

Description

An enquiring and elegiac new collection from one of Britain's most respected and accomplished poets From the posing of the very first question in the opening poem, 'Fragment of a Victorian Dialogue', John Fuller's enquiring and elegiac new collection arrives with a sharp sense of mortality, marked by the passing of time. Pebble & I responds to its own philosophical enquiries by looking to a world of vivid colour and substance. From the sun-baked pebbles and plastic ice-cream spines that bedeck the 'The Jetsam Garden', to the swallows that nest under the eaves of a farmhouse in the Cilento Hills in 'Stop', the poems take us from inky, restless seascapes to the warmth of the Mediterranean as they examine the connections between man and 'our material cousins' in nature. Seductive, yet sometimes playfully absurd, Fuller plumbs the depths with his trademark light touch and deft technical skill. The natural and social worlds can be as cruel as they are thrilling but ultimately the voices in this collection are here to celebrate 'elements of the eternal / In the ceremony of life.'

John Fuller, born in Ashford, Kent, is an acclaimed poet and novelist. His collection Stones and Fires (1996) was awarded the Forward Prize; Ghosts (2004) was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award for Poetry; The Space of Joy (2006) was shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award, and The Grey Among the Green (1988), Song & Dance (2008) and Pebble & I (2010) were all Poetry Book Society Recommendations. His 1983 novel Flying to Nowhere won the Whitbread First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has also written collections of short stories and several books for children. He is an Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.

One of the most enjoyable things about these latest offerings from John Fuller is the subtlety and variety of their descriptive detail... packed with his usual technical brio and range of tone, but what impresses more than anything is the precise and playful imagery * Guardian * One of our most productive and ingenious poets... bravely jaunty throughout * Daily Mail *