BOOKSELLER INFORMATION

Publication Date: 15-Jul-12 | ISBN: 9781844718627 | Trim Size: 198 x 129 mm | Extent: 96pp | Format: Hardback

UK & International Distribution:   | Publishing Status: Active

SYNOPSIS

Staring at 8MM bar in Berlin, this collection wonders what it’s like to spend your entire life on the M62. Playful, risqué and plain funny, these poems always tackle the important questions. Where does beer come from? Why was Shakespeare fond of gravy? What does it mean where Bedfordshire produces a sweet and sour pasty? Can a smile kill? During the Bradford section of the motorway, the book encounters Titus Salt and enquires about his snooker table. Mark E Smith discusses the Manchester smog and moshes with Allen Ginsberg. Children come and go, wishing for shells, Liverpool and a ready supply of Scootin’ Bumbleberrys. And where is Widdop?

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Berlin; Bitter; Engrish; Orme; This is Pleasure; Serchio Bathing Party; The Yellow Villa; Virga; The Unexpected Guest; Would a Smile Kill; The Mind Resort; Elizabeth Frost; Little Germany; Salt; Dudley Hill; Arras; I am a Magenta Stick; Manchester; Quays; Slack; Nabend; Torbay Road; Libeskind’s Box; Brassington; Why not use a that; The Bedfordshire Clanger; Sausage; Gravy; Spatif; Gdansk; Clara; Spired Babylon; Wave Nursery; Uncle Buncle Baby Gets Dressed; Save me from the Rootbots; Cader; Engrish; The People’s Republic Hotel; The Passing of Germany; The Führerhäuser

PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK

“Throughout the collection, Rowland demands that we take nothing for granted and ensures that we visualise the world as the extraordinary place that he perceives it to be. It is this unique vision that brings a fresh vibrancy to Rowland’s work and explains why this consistently self-assured writer was recently awarded the Manchester Poetry Prize.” —Judi Sutherland Dr Fulminare

PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS

“Its virtuosic lyrics crackle with energy … Extended phrases of luscious musicality emerge … this is a carnivalesque memorialisation of a lost working class culture.” —John Goodby Stand

“The Land of Green Ginger … celebrate[s] the sublime in the ordinary … explores the various borderlines that transverse the geographical and cultural landscape of contemporary Britain.” —Angelica Michelis The European English Messenger

“Extraordinary.” —Brian Cox

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Antony Rowland was born in Bradford in 1970. Since studying at Hull and Leeds he has taught literature and creative writing at The University of Salford. He has published poems in various journals and magazines, including Critical Quarterly, Stand and P.N. Review. A selection of his work appeared in New Poetries III (Carcanet, 2002). He received an Eric Gregory Award in 2000, and a Learning Northwest Award in 2001.