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Black Country

‘When I became a bird, Lord, nothing could not stop me... ’

In Black Country, Liz Berry takes flight: to Wrens Nest, Gosty Hill, Tipton-on-Cut; to the places of home. The poems move from the magic of childhood — bostin fittle at Nanny’s, summers before school — into deeper, darker territory: sensual love, enchanted weddings, and the promise of new life.

In Berry’s hands, the ordinary is transformed: her characters shift shapes, her eye is unusual, her ear attuned to the sounds of the Black Country, with ‘vowels ferrous as nails, consonants / you could lick the coal from.’ Ablaze with energy and full of the rich dialect of the West Midlands, this is an incandescent debut from a poet of dazzling talent and verve.

  • Format
  • paperback
  • Pages
  • 80
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9780701188573
  • Genres
  • poetry
  • Release date
  • 2014