The image used on the front cover of the book is a detail from Sir Edward Byrne-Jones's The Knights and the Briar Rose and is by courtesy of the Bridgeman Art Gallery and the Maas Gallery.
In her tenth collection, Gladys Mary Coles brings together her poems about war and its effects – major themes throughout her work. She ranges across the centuries, from the Roman invasion of Britain to the 2005 terrorist bombings in London, with a special focus on the First and Second World Wars. These are implicitly anti-war poems of protest and rememberance. As usual, her imagery is strong and haunting, and she achieves a considerable variety of tone and pace as she exploits the possibilities of narratives, lyrics and dramatic monologues.
Central to this collection is an arresting sequence written in the voice of as fictional soldier-poet: ‘Poems and Extracts from the Journals of Private William Manderson, Cheshire Regiment, 1916-19’. Her concerns extend to nature and the environment as she endorses Wilfred Owen's view that ‘All a poet can do today is warn’.
Song of the Butcher Bird costs £7.00 and was published in January 2007.
ISBN: 978-1-873226-87-2
A prolific poet, Gladys Mary Coles is also an historian, literary biographer and editor. Widely anthologised, she is herself the editor of a number of anthologies. As a poet, she has received many prizes and awards, and was selected to represent Britain in the Euro-Literature Project. She is a highly experienced teacher of imaginative writing, leading courses for the Arvon Foundation and the Taliesin Trust, and lecturing at both of Liverpool's universities.
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