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Anne Beresford Poetry
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Anne Beresford
Hearing Things
Poetry. 2002. 55 pages. ISBN: 0904872378. £6.95.

In her new collection, Hearing Things, Anne Beresford listens to the speaking voices of a panoply of characters, both in her head -- from stories, dreams and people who have died -- and in the world around her. In the poems we also hear many other make-believe and real sounds - menacing footsteps on the stairs, the countless birds in her big wild garden. (A Londoner born and bred, she migrated to rural Suffolk.) The poet's sharp ear combines an earthy interest in what is going on, from local gossip to world politics, with a contemplative imagination.

'It's time for her collected poems.' -- London Magazine

'Poems which are always larger than their apparent subject matter and do not advertise their powers of observation.' -- Agenda

'Her essence is a sort of evanescence. She's subtly allusive, economical and precise. The words are as limpid as a mountain spring, yet you have to think about them. Her poetic occasions choose her, and she's in touch with whatever it is that makes us human and slightly more than human.' -- Ambit

'Anne Beresford is admirably spare; these poems have been honed... and are all the sharper for her judicious pruning... a fresh, surprising voice.' -- Frogmore Papers

'Everywhere in this handsomely produced book there is a feeling of intensity and concentration, a need to make the words faithful to the sensations initiating them, and a pure pleasure to the ear.' -- New British Poetry (click)

'compact and haunting poems' -- SLN

Anne Beresford
No Place for Cowards
Poetry. 1998. 54 pages. ISBN 0 904872 29 7. £6.95.

Anne Beresford, who has been described as 'the finest of mystic poets', also has a sharply satirical political edge. Personal, erotic, spiritual and political themes are interwoven in this her varied and satisfying twelfth collection.

'Anne Beresford is one of our finest poets, and of course one seldom hears about her. She's not exactly neglected, for this is her twelfth book. Discerning editors have spotted her quality -- the newness of being herself, with her own slant on everything.' -- Ambit

'A mystical and sometimes disturbing collection...the confidence of the poetic voice assures the reader of complete and powerful poems... the apparently straightforward is given some exciting twists to grip and fascinate... These poems read easily with a spontaneity that is usually the result of fine crafting... an excellent book.' -- Envoi

'Anne Beresford does not beat us over the head with a political stick, is never crudely erotic or strenuously evangelical; yet politics, sex and religiosity run through her work. She is a poet who knows there is always a world of the spirit close by.'-- New Hope International.

'Anne Beresford's twelfth collection is another satisfying book, beautifully produced by Katabasis... by an aware and sensitive writer.' -- PQR

'I like the tone of this collection, implied in the title with its echo of Emily Bronte's "No Coward Soul is Mine" and which certainly makes a change from the relentlessly downbeat.' -- Poetry Nottingham

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