Lairs

Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description

Mae'r gyfrol Lairs , a ysbrydolwyd gan fathemateg, yn cyfleu mewn modd tywyll, ffeuau anifeiliaid, cysgod a hafanau dirgel, gyda'r gerdd ei hun yn tyfu yn ddelwedd o nyth, yn groniad hardd o fanylder dwfn. Dyma gasgliad o gerddi cymhleth, mewnddrychol sy'n dwyn i gof gyfnodau clo dwys ynghyd â bywyd ôl-Frecsit, gan ddilorni ceidwadaeth sefydliadol.

Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description

Darkly suggestive of animal dens, shelter and secretive havens, Lairs is inspired by mathematics, the poem becoming a kind of nest, a beautiful accumulation of dense detail. The poems are complex, introspective, reminiscent of fervid lockdowns as well as offering a subtle strand on post-Brexit life, a mocking of establishment conservatism.

Dosbarthu

Byddwn yn dosbarthu eitemau sydd mewn stoc o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith, fel arfer drwy Royal Mail Tracked 48. Ar gyfer archebion o flaen llaw, byddwn yn dosbarthu’r eitem o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith ar ôl ei derbyn gan ein cyflenwr.

Dispatch

In-stock items will be dispatched within 3 business days, usually by Royal Mail Tracked 48. For pre-orders, we’ll dispatch within 3 business days of receiving the item from our supplier.

Bywgraffiad yr Awdur / Author Biography

Born in Cheshire, Judy Brown studied English at Cambridge and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Her pamphlet, ’Pillars of Salt‘ (Templar Poetry, 2006), won the Templar Pamphlet Competition. Judy’s first poetry collection, ‘Loudness’ (Seren, 2011), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for best first collection and the Fenton Aldeburgh Prize. Her most recent, ‘Crowd Sensations’ (Seren, 2016), was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and shortlisted for the Ledbury Forte Second Collection Prize.

Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review

Science and poetry don’t necessarily seem the most natural of bedfellows. To have two mathematics professors and four doctors thanked in the acknowledgments of a poetry collection is, it is fair to say, a rarity. Yet somehow in Lairs by Judy Brown it just makes sense. Having taken part in a fellowship at Exeter University’s Institute of Data Science that saw her collaborating with academics and specialising in ‘uncertainty quantification’, the mix of science and nature in Lairs is what makes this a great collection. Uncertainty quantification, for the uninitiated, is the science around tracking, monitoring and managing uncertainty, both in theory and in the real world. In that sense it’s arguably one of the most human sciences and a perfect match for poetry. What could really be more poetic than uncertainty? Metaphysics in some form or other is a driver behind much poetry, so Brown's approach and experiments with uncertainty quantification fit more naturally than one might first think. Science, maths and logic are present throughout this collection. In ‘Some Security Questions’ the logic of online security questions is pulled apart in a confusing and amusing way. ‘Q: What were the stupid questions? A: There are none / the statisticians said, but this was maths, so they could / be out there, capable of being asked.’ Elsewhere, ‘The Data’ deconstructs the idea of data being reliable and objective: ‘The assurances we sought were malleable as plasticine.’ In ‘A Model Life’, the scientific model of the birth-and-death process is taken from the theoretical to the human beautifully. Brown has a talent for the unnerving, and the scientific influence falls elsewhere casting different shades on her poetry. ‘Fruit for Offices’ looks at the growing of fruit specifically for an office environment. It reads somewhere in that grey area between satire and deathly serious. ‘The fruit must swell with dispensed water / but never to splitting point since we are for display.’ The humanity in Brown’s poems is strong. A highlight of the collection is ‘Another Young Man Chooses Water’. In just four short stanzas a mystery emerges of a possible suicide that creates a double meaning of the title. Our ‘young man’ drinks bottled water at an alcohol-fuelled work event, but later drowns in a river. It is the kind of poem that should be taught to all writers as an example of the raw power of the right words in the right order; there is no filler and it manages to be clever, direct and to tell a story in less than half a page. ‘Lairs’ refers to habitats. In its broadest sense it refers to the environments around animals, humans, and different beings. It feels like an incredibly apt title, as Brown’s poems all feel outwardly looking as they examine our world with the exacting eye of both a poet and a scientist. Lairs is a collection for anyone with a sense of curiosity and confusion around our modern and ever-changing world.