Just to echo David Kennedy's recommendation of 'Clearing A Name' by David
Morley, an ESSENTIAL read. David's concern with writing a life was already
evident from 'Mandelstam Variations' but the striking point in common
between that book and this, (which obviously homes in on the most intimate
territory and goes beyond one life to more shady and far-reaching questions
about origin), is precisely the distance, the strangeness which comes with
stark detail. This is evident in the titles of sections, as David Kennedy
has already said, but also more generally in the clipped, measured tone.
Northern England has undergone various transformations in poetry, and this
looks like being one of the most striking.
Malcolm
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