|
Biographical note: Wes Magee was born in Greenock, Scotland. He worked as a bank clerk and National Serviceman before studying at University of London where he began writing. He was a teacher and then Head Teacher at large Primary schools in Wiltshire, Hertfordshire and Humberside until resigning to become a full time author in 1989. He has published 5 poetry collections for adults, and over 90 books for children. Regularly makes author visits to schools and libraries nationwide, speaks at conferences, and tutors at writing courses for adults.
BIC Basic
EAN13: 9781844714827
ISBN: 9781844714827
Author: Wes Magee
Title: Joyriding!
Series: Salt Modern Poets
Product class: BC
Language: eng
Audience: General/trade
BIC subject category: CTCH1
Publisher: Salt Publishing
Pub date: 07-Jun-10
Extent: 80pp
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 6 mm
Weight: 120 gms
Supplier: Gardners Books
Supplier: Ingram Book Group
Supplier: Inbooks (James Bennett)
Availability: IP
Price: GBP 8.99
Price: USD 15.95
Rights: World
|
Social networking links:
      
Short
description/annotation: Wes Magee’s new collection of poems surveys the physical and emotional experiences in the realms of sex. love and relationships. Divided into seven sections, the book mirrors Jaques’ speech in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, stretching from youth to old age. Varying in structure, the poems make various use of blank verse, rhyme and rhythm in celebrating the joy, humour and sadness of intimacy.
Main description: The poems in Joyriding! celebrate the emotional and sexual experiences of falling in love. Using a wide variety of poetic forms and structures, rhymed and unrhymed verse, the collection is divided into seven sections, based on Jaques’ famous speech… ‘All the world’s a stage … his acts being seven ages….’ in Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’.
Beginning, in section one, with a childhood game in the secret setting of a churchyard’s laurel bushes, the book’s poems describe and illuminate the many relationships and situations we encounter on life’s long trek from innocence, through growing up, to maturity and then old age.
While love relationships are indeed joyful, some cast a sad and darker shadow: they have a sharpness that cuts and scars. The poems in Joyriding! reflect these differences. Encounters in the skin trade can also be funny and humorous, and many of the poems in Magee’s sixth collection deliciously depict riotously hilarious moments.
‘Joyriding!’ can be labelled love poetry, but there is nothing soft-centred about the poems. At different times they are passionate, irreverent, graphic, witty, and funny, but above all joyfully celebrate one of the great aspects of human experience.
Table of contents:
First Love
Just After the Second World War
TWO
Kiss
Saturday Nights
Stars, Sand-Dunes, Marram Grass, Sea-Thistles and Surf
A National Service Moment Of Desire
Beforeplay
Girl in the Ice-Cream Parlour
On Christmas Eve
THREE
It Happened In The School Stockroom
The Cure
Love Bites
Threesome
First
Fingertips
Afterwards
FOUR
Early Starters
Seeking The Seals
Joyriding?!
When??
Early Morning Close-Up
That Blanket On The Ground
The Letter
FIVE
Love on a Mountain Top
Iris
Where The Bee Sucks
Footsie
That Other World
Mise en scène
In Bed with the Cuddly Creatures
SIX
Butterfly
Love In The Bath
Skin Flick
Rodin On The Underground
Bathtime
Top Shelf
Physical Geography
The Miles … The Miles
SEVEN
Dormobile Memories
Forty Years On View excerpt as PDF:  Click here to view a sample ( KB)
Excerpt from book:
First
She lit up, lay back,
and fag smoke drifted
through the thrumming gloom.
‘Was it … your first time?’
Her edgy question
coiled in the closed room.
Quiet, he stared up,
tasting again the
tartness of her kiss,
and thought of other firsts:
step, word, school.
All notches, and now this.
A post-coital angst
and the acrid smoke
left him feeling arsed.
Absent chemistry
and five words ensured
their first time was their last.
Previous review quote: ‘Wes Magee is a sound example … deep, meaningful and skilful … A rare animal!’ Martin Booth Previous review quote: ‘Poems like this are an impressive achievement.’ Grevel Lindop Previous review quote: ‘… strong and honest poems about everyday experiences …’ Kevin Crossley-Holland |
Contact
us