
Sins of the Leopard
James Brookes(Author)
Salt Publishing
Will be published approx. on 8. August 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
80 pages
978-1-84471-966-2 (ISBN)
Description
Shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize
Shortlisted for the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize
This remarkable debut sees tales of treachery, guilt and love play out against the whole canvas of history. Empires rise and fall; the beasts of Britain stalk from the age of Rome to the new age of austerity; heroes and villains take their stands on the Sussex Downs and on the Pennines, from the Death Star to Dancing on Ice. A courageous study of the violence and beauty of belonging, this book also celebrates what really endures: the lure of power, the pain of betrayal, the solace of family and home. Vividly imagined and critically acclaimed, this is poetry for now and for years to come.
Shortlisted for the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize
This remarkable debut sees tales of treachery, guilt and love play out against the whole canvas of history. Empires rise and fall; the beasts of Britain stalk from the age of Rome to the new age of austerity; heroes and villains take their stands on the Sussex Downs and on the Pennines, from the Death Star to Dancing on Ice. A courageous study of the violence and beauty of belonging, this book also celebrates what really endures: the lure of power, the pain of betrayal, the solace of family and home. Vividly imagined and critically acclaimed, this is poetry for now and for years to come.
Reviews / Votes
In Brookes's hands, "Britain is real again", suddenly lit up by the fierce glint of a scouring intelligence. -- Andrew McCulloch * Times Literary Supplement * James Brookes writes a wonderfully rich and achieved poetry which reminds me our very best practitioners such as Geoffrey Hill and David Harsent. His profound knowledge of the resources of English history and its protean language does not, however, mean he works with a restricted scope; it is a grounding for his investigation of the world's strange treasurehouse conducted with such a challenging and imaginative musical power it is hard to believe that 'Sins of the Leopard' is his first full collection. -- Ian Duhig James Brookes, a recent Gregory Award winner, gets graphically muscular purchase on the bloody business of English history in his impressive debut ... In Brookes's hands, "Britain is real again", suddenly lit up by the fierce glint of a scouring intelligence, brought grippingly alive in a language that combines Anglo-Saxon clout with Latinate gravitas. This is in every sense a generous book from a generously gifted young poet. -- Andrew McCulloch * Times Literary Supplement * The weight of each line here, each clause and syllable, is perfectly judged. That phrase 'dirigible angel' is a mark of Brookes' talent - it is at once lyrical, sonically logical and completely surprising. There is a strictness too, strongly evoking the poetry of Geoffrey Hill, as well as a playfulness more reminiscent of Paul Muldoon at his riddling best. -- Tom Chivers * Hand + Star Review * In Brookes's hands, "Britain is real again", suddenly lit up by the fierce glint of a scouring intelligence. -- Andrew McCulloch * Times Literary Supplement * James Brookes writes a wonderfully rich and achieved poetry which reminds me our very best practitioners such as Geoffrey Hill and David Harsent. His profound knowledge of the resources of English history and its protean language does not, however, mean he works with a restricted scope; it is a grounding for his investigation of the world's strange treasurehouse conducted with such a challenging and imaginative musical power it is hard to believe that 'Sins of the Leopard' is his first full collection. -- Ian Duhig James Brookes, a recent Gregory Award winner, gets graphically muscular purchase on the bloody business of English history in his impressive debut ... In Brookes's hands, "Britain is real again", suddenly lit up by the fierce glint of a scouring intelligence, brought grippingly alive in a language that combines Anglo-Saxon clout with Latinate gravitas. This is in every sense a generous book from a generously gifted young poet. -- Andrew McCulloch * Times Literary Supplement * The weight of each line here, each clause and syllable, is perfectly judged. That phrase 'dirigible angel' is a mark of Brookes' talent - it is at once lyrical, sonically logical and completely surprising. There is a strictness too, strongly evoking the poetry of Geoffrey Hill, as well as a playfulness more reminiscent of Paul Muldoon at his riddling best. -- Tom Chivers * Hand + Star Review *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Illustrations
Not illustrated
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 5 mm
Weight
96 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84471-966-2 (9781844719662)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
James Brookes was born in 1986 and grew up in rural Sussex, a few minutes' walk from Shelley's boyhood home of Field Place. He received a major Eric Gregory Award in 2009 and a Hawthornden International Writer's Fellowship in 2011. He has published a pamphlet, The English Sweats, with Pighog Press and is currently the Williams Librarian at Cranleigh School in Surrey, where also he teaches. Sins of the Leopard is his first full collection.
Content
Requiem for an Invasion
Fealty
Maneaters
Gazetteer
Opiates: Kaliningrad
Concerning Plunder
After a 2nd Donation
Gattopardo
Moff Jerjerrod Redoubles his Efforts
Hierophantic Head of Mao, Hunan Province
Robespierre faces the Scaffold
Portents
A Hometown Execution
You Might Very Well Think That; I Couldn't Possibly Comment
Pharisees
Shrike
Amen to Artillery
Neck Order
Johnson Beharry VC Dances On Ice
Awards Night, London/Caina
In Clitheroe Keep (1)
In Clitheroe Keep (2)
Fire and Fleet and Candlelight
Septuagesimal
Mink
The English Sweats
Mons Horse Burial
Silent Enim Leges Inter Arma
Eric Gill between Wisdom and Gaiety
Two Seasons for the Tees-Exe Line
Near All Hallows
That Great Lucifer
Star Chamber
Parliaments
Bonfire Night
Operation Gomorrah
Ordeal by Fire, By Water
Rough Hawkbit
Parliament
Three Remembrances for Colonel Pride
Lion in Winter
Running to Field Place
Khyber Pass Copy
Appropriate
Lucifer at Camlann
Surveying the Queen's Pictures
Parlement
The Crescent of Hearing
Recently Sighted
Badger
Caractacus in the Rape of Bramber
Planh
Saint Peter ad Vincula (500 years)
HMYOI Hymn
Those Iscariot Motions
Parliament
Prussia Cove
Fealty
Maneaters
Gazetteer
Opiates: Kaliningrad
Concerning Plunder
After a 2nd Donation
Gattopardo
Moff Jerjerrod Redoubles his Efforts
Hierophantic Head of Mao, Hunan Province
Robespierre faces the Scaffold
Portents
A Hometown Execution
You Might Very Well Think That; I Couldn't Possibly Comment
Pharisees
Shrike
Amen to Artillery
Neck Order
Johnson Beharry VC Dances On Ice
Awards Night, London/Caina
In Clitheroe Keep (1)
In Clitheroe Keep (2)
Fire and Fleet and Candlelight
Septuagesimal
Mink
The English Sweats
Mons Horse Burial
Silent Enim Leges Inter Arma
Eric Gill between Wisdom and Gaiety
Two Seasons for the Tees-Exe Line
Near All Hallows
That Great Lucifer
Star Chamber
Parliaments
Bonfire Night
Operation Gomorrah
Ordeal by Fire, By Water
Rough Hawkbit
Parliament
Three Remembrances for Colonel Pride
Lion in Winter
Running to Field Place
Khyber Pass Copy
Appropriate
Lucifer at Camlann
Surveying the Queen's Pictures
Parlement
The Crescent of Hearing
Recently Sighted
Badger
Caractacus in the Rape of Bramber
Planh
Saint Peter ad Vincula (500 years)
HMYOI Hymn
Those Iscariot Motions
Parliament
Prussia Cove