Living Next to Leda

Barbara Bentley
This is a remarkable first collection of poems by Barbara Bentley. Her distinctively witty voice brings us the up-to-date versions of the females of mythology. ’Noah’s Wife’ is plagued by her DIY-mad, boat-building spouse, ’Waking Beauty’ wakes from a cryogenic sleep into a bizarre future and the ’Leda’ of the title poem is a deranged neighbour, convinced of a startling dream. Our consumer society and its exhortations to the modern woman to ’have it all’ are scrutinised with considerable flair and irony. Watch out for ’The Telephone Sonnets’ -a sequence that reveals tales of lust, infidelity, betrayal and revenge, often in the guise of techno-jargon. There are also meditative works on family, friends, childhood memories and brief glimpses of past lives such as ’Moons’, a short series that subtly illuminates the consequences of a marriage. The reader will find much to admire in this lively and skilful debut.

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More Publication details

ISBN : 1854111590  Pages : 72
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Reviews

Barbara Bentley crafts imaginative, witty poems with a mature grasp of the poet’s art and purpose in the world. Her voice is clear and her narrative strengths are compelling. This is a notable book - Tony Curtis



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