In this highly accomplished debut collection Sarah Wimbush journeys through myth and memory with poetry rooted in Yorkshire. From fireside tales of Romany Gypsies and Travellers, through pit villages and the haunt of the Miners' Strike, to the subliminal of everyday - with poems on typists, pencil sharpeners and learning to drive in a Ford Capri.
Winner of the Mslexia/Poetry Book Society Women's Poetry Pamphlet Prize 2019Bloodlines is an exploration of Sarah Wimbush's own Gypsy/Traveller heritage, a journey made by piecing together fragments of distant stories and a scattered language. Along the way, we meet people who are 'tethered to the seasons'; voices that reverberate with a sense of family and resilience, and always with that constant wonder of being part of something colourful, untamed and rare."There is a Romany saying, We are all one: all who are with us are ourselves; Sarah Wimbush's collection draws us into the world of Travellers with linguistic panache and delight." – David Morley"Sarah Wimbush's exciting poetry has that rare ring of authenticity. Her language brings to life a lost world with startling vividness. It is the real thing." – Carole Bromley"Bloodlines asserts Carroty Kate, our Jud and Lizzie's right to have their mother tongue placed among the voices of poetry." – Stuart Pickford"A thrilling debut that kept me outdoors in the grassy world of communal lives. I love the formal dazzle and linguistic dare that spoke of defiance, survival and utter joy." – Daljit Nagra
An exuberant journey down Yorkshire's ginnels; from The Miners' Strike, to men who should have been astronauts and no-nonsense women. A celebration of belonging, in all its gritty splendour.
It's March 1984 and the miners' strike has just started. By exploring both famous and previously unseen photographs through the lens of poetry, STRIKE captures the turbulence of one of the longest industrial disputes in British history, and the spirit of a marginalised community on the verge of profound change. In STRIKE we journey from the North East which inspires Billy Elliot, to Wivenhoe Docks where flying pickets attempt to stop coal imports, to children riddling coal on spoil tips in Wales. We come face to face with politicised 'Women Against Pit Closures' and riot police brutality, and we discover what motivates Scargill while Thatcher's tactics are laid bare in the Ridley Plan. The BBC's reversed news footage of the Battle of Orgreave illustrates how the media manipulates coverage and the infamous ballot box stands silent. But there are moments of humanity: an impromptu game of football between Nottinghamshire police and strikers, the Pits and Perverts concert organised by 'Lesbians and Gays Support The Miners', and a Scottish policeman giving a picket the kiss of life. By 1985, these poems ache with strike-breakers, impacted children, and tragic deaths, but even in this most desperate of class struggles there are still flashes of humour and hope.