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The Penny Dropping

By Helen Farish
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Brief Description
Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2024 Drawing on powerful and universal themes, The Penny Dropping traces the journey of a relationship from first meeting to eventual break-up. Distance and maturity give retrospective access to moments of revelation which went fatally unacknowledged or unheeded at the... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3799
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The Penny Dropping traces the journey of a relationship from first meeting to eventual break-up. Distance and maturity give retrospective access to moments of revelation which went fatally unacknowledged or unheeded at the time and which now return with an insistence impossible to ignore. Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize.

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Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2024

Drawing on powerful and universal themes, The Penny Dropping traces the journey of a relationship from first meeting to eventual break-up.

Distance and maturity give retrospective access to moments of revelation which went fatally unacknowledged or unheeded at the time and which now return with an insistence impossible to ignore. But if the penny drops years too late, these poems are their own implicit argument for the value of revisiting our pasts if only in order to acquire a fuller, more complete presence in the now.

Hovering over the collection is Eliot's final question in The Waste Land: 'Shall I at least set my lands in order?' And as Helen Farish applies herself to the task, her unflinching yet compassionate voice has never been more in evidence. From the elation of the opening 'Things We Loved' to the acceptance and humour of 'Of All My Losses', much is at stake on every page.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781852249960

Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 25 April 2024

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Bloodaxe Books Ltd

Edition: Paperback original

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 7.0mm

Width: 156.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 64

Collections

Arts & Culture Helen Farish Non-Fiction Poetry

About the Author

Helen Farish was born in Cumbria where she now lives. Her debut collection, Intimates (Cape, 2005), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. She has published three collections with Bloodaxe: Nocturnes at Nohant: The decade of Chopin and Sand (2012), The Dog of Memory (2016), which was shortlisted for the Lakeland Book of the Year 2017, and The Penny Dropping (2023). Helen Farish was also a Writer of the Year Finalist in the Cumbria Life Culture Awards 2017.

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