The Bookseller – Comment – Anthologies, class and the ‘lawnmower genre’

It was a joy to talk to the team at The Poetry Business for a feature that will appear in the Northern Powerhouse Focus issue of The Bookseller (out this Friday, 13th June).

This Yorkshire-based publisher has become an institution in the almost 40 years since it was founded. It has published some of the nation’s finest poets through its Smith|Doorstop imprint, as well as running workshops and a range of projects in places where there might otherwise be little access to poetry. The small team even manages to produce a twice-yearly magazine, the North.

One recent project was The Coal Anthology, to mark the 40th anniversary of the miners’ strike; the publisher worked with poet Sarah Wimbush and the National Coal Mining Museum to provide workshops and events, plus produce a book of poetry and other creative responses to this historical episode.

The anthology includes work from established poets, including Ian McMillan, Gillian Clarke and Paul Bentley, alongside new and younger voices writing about communities affected by pit closures.

The publishing sector has been putting more focus on “class” over the past few years in a bid to become more inclusive, but The Poetry Business has embodied inclusivity for four decades – staying true to its working class and regional roots, while consistently publishing world-class books and pamphlets.

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I love a good anthology and, sticking with the Yorkshire theme, the latest offering from Scarborough-based indie Valley Press is a selection of poems that appeared in the literary periodical, Northern Gravy.

It is a match made in heaven. Valley Press, run by Jamie McGarry, has been described by the Guardian as showing “a strength of entrepreneurial spirit combined with a great publisher’s curatorial eye”, while Northern Gravy has quickly established itself as a fine journal and organisation “dedicated to bringing to light the excellence of new writing”.

Due to be published in August, the book is edited by Ralph Dartford, who “dreamed up” Northern Gravy with Jonny Syer and Nick Jones when the trio were studying Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University.

One anthology that certainly jumped (or should that be flew?) out at me recently in Nottingham Waterstones was The Book of Bird Poems, edited by Ana Sampson and illustrated by Ryuto Miyake. This Orion-published beauty has a gorgeous eye-catching cover and contains 60 poems ranging from “the common robin to the soaring eagle, from the chattering parrot to the sinister crow”. If ever there was a book that would make a great gift, it’s this.

Francesca Gardner, from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, dubbed lawnmower poetry a “micro genre” and said now might be a good moment for its revival

Anthologies often come via recommendations, of course, and one such was Places of Poetry, published by Oneworld. It was one of those occasions when someone says “you really must read this poem” – in this instance, referring to On First Spotting a Snake’s Head Fritillary by Nine Arches Press poet and Blake Friedmann managing director Isobel Dixon. Containing the gorgeous line “too little marsh left at the margin of clipped lives”, it details a chance encounter with these “purple crosshatched lanterns bobbing in the rain” – which, given I’d arrived at the book in a similarly serendipitous way, seemed fitting.

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While birds and places seem entirely logical themes to build an anthology around, you’d never do the same with lawnmowers, would you?

Well, who knows, given that a new study by Cambridge University has suggested that writing about mowing the lawn is a tradition dating back to the 17th century.

Philip Larkin, of course, described killing a hedgehog with a lawnmower, while Andrew Motion based an elegy for his father on memories of him cutting the grass. Slightly less bucolic was the Mark Waldron offering: I Wish I Loved Lawnmowers. Don’t expect a tender tribute to Flymos and Mountfields if you read this – it’s about crack cocaine.

Francesca Gardner, from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, dubbed lawnmower poetry a “micro genre” and said now might be a good moment for its revival, given it could tackle themes as varied as the eco-crisis, violence, childhood, mortality, masculinity and the quotidian.

She also points out that British lawnmower poems have typically been written by men, but found examples of women poking fun at mower-obsessed men, such as Peggy Miller’s A Lawnmower Widow’s Lament, which opens: “I once was loved and cherished by a man who was quite handsome / But now I’m second fiddle to a Dennis or Ransomes.”

Francesca added: “Lawnmowers are dull and day-to-day one minute and shockingly dangerous and disruptive the next… they are sometimes strictly controlled and sometimes ungovernable.”

Anyone who’s ever seen my garden would certainly agree with that final sentiment…

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It was lovely to see the talent and hard work of so many publishers recognised at The Bookseller’s British Book Awards last month.

Among those taking the plaudits was Seren, named Wales Small Press of the Year.

Seren is a brilliant publisher, with a range of “innovative, era-defining, important and fun” titles in the pipeline which will resonate with readers both within – and beyond – Wales.

“We want to make an impact – combining critical and commercial success with publications that both reflect and challenge contemporary lives, values and art,” says chief executive Bronwen Price. “We love what we do, are striving for growth and can’t wait to create the books of Wales’ future.”

I’m particularly looking forward to Deryn Rees-Jones’ new collection Hôtel Amour, which is out in July. Rees-Jones is known to many as professor of poetry at the University of Liverpool, but she is also editor of the Pavilion Poetry list (part of Liverpool University Press) and her previous book, Erato, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize.