Territorial waters

The Ship Asunder – A Maritime History in Eleven Vessels Tom Nancollas, Particular Books, 2022, hb.. 336 pages, £20 An ocean of clichés surrounds Britain’s maritime history – from Chaucer’s Shipman to Drake, and Nelson to the ‘little ships’ at Dunkirk. Tom Nancollas, whose 2018 Seashaken Houses treated lambently of lighthouses, now navigates debris-strewn territorial… Continue reading

Deptford dreaming

Aircraft always overhead, trains pulling in and out, traffic backed up along the New Cross Road, pulsating rap from open windows, plastic bottles in the gutter, pigeons with fungus-eaten toes, gang tags on gritty walls, smells of exhaust, fast food, sweat and the shower-gel of the highly made-up, high-heeled woman who just clicked by oblivious,… Continue reading

Michael Wilding’s Spiked review of Displacement

MICHAEL WILDING’S SPIKED REVIEW OF DISPLACEMENT Very pleased to say that the renowned Australian writer Michael Wilding has reviewed Displacement handsomely for Spiked. Here’s the link – http://www.spiked-online.com/spiked-review/article/the-loneliness-of-the-high-rise-free-runner/20005#.WVmAJjOZNok And here’s the text. Thanks, Michael. The loneliness of the long distance free-runner Through all the formal variations of the English novel, one theme recurs: the two nations. The huge… Continue reading

New review of Displacement, by poet Liam Guitar

The June issue of Chronicles contains a top-notch review of Displacement, by the poet Liam Guitar (whose Anhaga is just out, and highly recommended). Liam says, “Turner’s descriptions of London are one of the highlights…The city becomes a character: old, vibrant, curled along its river, evoked in swift effective sentences creating precise and memorable images. The prose… Continue reading