Review
"One of the most talented writers I've come across, with tremendous delicacy of feeling and expression"
--Andrew Motion
'These are incantatory poems that insist on being read aloud.'
--Observer
'impressive debut; it shows a sensitive imagination, moulded into thoughtful verse.' --Financial Times
'The subjects careen from barn owls to ... internet search obsession, but a warm intelligence underpins them all.'
--Financial Times
"...easily one of the best poetry collections I've read in the past decade."
--The Herald
`bewitchingly recherché...there's a poise and precision to his writing, a gift for imagery...a willingness to...explore multiple (frequently unsympathetic) voices...'
--Guardian
Book Description
Product Description
Adam O'Riordan's remarkable first collection traces the hidden paths from past to present, from the lost to the living, seeking familiarity in a world of 'false trails and disappearing acts'. Here relatives, friends and other absences are coaxed into life and urgently pressed on the reader as they surface, in the flesh.
Journeys begin with indelible detail and open into new and astonishing landscapes of the head and the heart. Whether in graceful elegies for the dead or the charged lyrics of love and desire, poems cross space as well as time, from the 'blackened lung' of Victorian Manchester and the fateful events of the 1913 Derby, to enter a modern era of satellites and late night searches for lost lovers. At the heart of the collection lies the sonnet sequence 'Home', a slant look at the lives of William and Dorothy Wordsworth, intersected by more recent, sometimes unsettling, personal portraits.
Clear-eyed and sensuous, these are poems linked by a strong sense of place and presence, longing and loss; of history captured in an irrevocable moment. In the Flesh is a startling debut from one of our finest young British poets.
From the Back Cover
Adam O'Riordan's remarkable first collection negotiates the hidden paths from past to present, from the lost to the living, seeking familiarity in a world of 'false trails and disappearing acts'. Here are taut renderings of relatives, friends and other absences, coaxed into life and urgently pressed on the reader as they surface, in the flesh.
Journeys begin with indelible detail and open into new and astonishing landscapes of the head and the heart. Whether in the delicate recollections and refashioning of moments in a family life, graceful elegies for the dead or the charged lyrics of love and desire, poems cross space as well as time, from the 'blackened lung' of Victorian Manchester and the fateful events of the Derby of 1913, to enter a modern era of transatlantic corpse gardens and late night searches for lost lovers. At the heart of the collection lies the sonnet sequence 'Home', a slant look at the lives of William and Dorothy Wordsworth, intersected by more recent, sometimes unsettling, personal portraits.
In language both clear-eyed and sensuous, these are poems linked by a strong sense of place and presence, longing and loss; of history captured in an irrevocable moment. In the Flesh is a startling debut from one of our finest emerging new British poets.
ADAM O'RIORDAN was born in Manchester in 1982, and educated at Oxford and London University, where he was awarded the inaugural Peters, Fraser and Dunlop poetry prize. In 2008 he was awarded an Eric Gregory Award and was Poet-in-Residence at the Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere. He lives in London.
About the Author
Adam O'Riordan was born in Manchester in 1982, and educated at Oxford and London University, where he was awarded the inaugural Peters, Fraser and Dunlop poetry prize. In 2008 he was awarded an Eric Gregory Award and was Poet-in-Residence at the Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere. He lives in London.
In the Flesh includes the sequence, 'Home', a series of thematically linked sonnets inspired by Dove Cottage, and selected by the Poetry Book Society as its pamphlet choice in 2009.
