Thistles of the Hesperides

Cover design: Gainford Design Associates

The long title sequence of this début collection is about West Pilton in Scotland where Caroline Smith lived when it was one of the most deprived housing estates in Europe. Yet rather than employing a naturalistic approach, she uses Greek myths to give the poems forming the sequence an overall structure, weaving together strands of individual stories with an account of contemporary political idealism and naïvety. As in Joyce's Ulysses, reality and mythology collide so that the everyday and the mundane are seen in an unexpected and transfiguring way. It is by exploiting mythic exaggeration that Caroline Smith is able to capture the sheer extremity of life on West Pilton.

'In this new collection, Caroline Smith again surprises us with her candour and sparkling freshness. Accessible domestic experience connects with the grandeur of the ancient gods; a poverty-stricken housing estate reverberates with the universal truth of Greek myth and history. These poems are moving, uplifting and resonant.'
Margaret Ellsberg, (Barnard College, Columbia University, New York)

To buy this book:

Thistles of the Hesperides costs £7.00 and was published in 2000.
ISBN: 978-1-873226-39-1

Caroline Smith originally trained as a sculptor, and her approach to poetry is sculptural. This is evident in her much-praised long poem 'Edith', published in Flambard New Poets 1. Several of her poems, including 'Nova Polska' and 'A Love Song for Psyche and Cupid' (both in this collection), have recently been set to music and performed in concert halls and on radio by the BBC Singers and Jane Manning. In 1997 her music drama The Bedseller's Tale was staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe by Classworks Theatre Company. Caroline Smith is married to Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent North, the Parliamentary Secretary at the Department for Productivity Energy and Industry. They have four children.

 

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