Anyone who knows me knows I don’t read poetry, but occasionally I make an exception, and this new book out from Jean Fairbairn is one of them. I have read and enjoyed her work before and bought this one as soon as it was released. Which tells you something.
I think the thing I love most about Fairbairn’s poetry is how beautifully, and often brutally, descriptive it is. The dedication refers to this author’s “ancestors: Scottish miners and Sussex farmers, whose sacrifices for King and Country are so rarely acknowledged.” But in this book Fairbairn does indeed acknowledge them. The section titled Ancestry opens with two poems about mining and pit disasters, which are followed by other, deeply personal poems from wartime.
The book is not entirely filled with poems covering such serious subjects though, with others about a trip to Bognor as a child, Ilfracombe and the magnificent Verity, and ghosts returning to haunt a rectory. However, tough topics are predominant, and this work feels like this writer has poured her heart and soul into it.
Highly recommended.
