Swings and Roundabouts

This is Mick Gowar's first collection of poems. For sure he'll be lobbed into the 'school of Rosen and McGough' and in that some of the poems are about family life and urban living and there is some similarity in tone in the opening of poems like Dad's Garden:

My Dad's very keen on
gardening
but it's
gardening INDOORS

there's some excuse. But the range of theme, feeling and tone in this collection is wide from the slow moving grace and acceptance of Haringey Sunday which describes the old women gathering for their veg peeling ritual, to the heart-racing, desperate tension of First Boyfriend, the quietly pleased recognition of a changed relationship with a grown-up brother in Launderette and the darkness behind November 3rd - which reminded me of Philippa Pearce's story The Great Blackberry Pick in What the Neighbours Did. Lots on offer here for classrooms or personal browsers. Don't miss it.