{"id":8,"date":"2013-07-05T18:02:10","date_gmt":"2013-07-05T18:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/?page_id=8"},"modified":"2018-08-03T09:34:41","modified_gmt":"2018-08-03T09:34:41","slug":"reviews","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/?page_id=8","title":{"rendered":"Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some responses to “The Goldsmith’s Apprentice<\/span>” (published 18\/4\/2018)\u00a0 Winner of Rubery International Poetry Award, July 2018.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe Goldsmith\u2019s Apprentice opens with a wonderful sequence of poems about work. From glassworkers to glass eye fitters, these poems understand the routines and insanities of what people do to earn a crust, revealing with great empathy the impact of industry on lives. This wide-ranging collection moves outwards from there to a broad scope of subjects, from ties to lost campervans, from an old man at the gym to a moving final sequence about a grandchild. Now humorous, now powerful, crammed with good ideas and great endings, these are accessible poems which are deeply engaged with both the ephemera and the big issues of ordinary lives.More than anything, I value them for their great humanity, their understanding of the power of poetry to celebrate the importance of lives lost to history, tough work or a duff education system. To appropriate the ending of a wonderfully moving poem about a nurse, these poems, coming as they do out of the best motivations and the deepest artistic rigour, are The Real Thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonathan Edwards<\/strong>
\nWinner of The Costa Award for Poetry<\/em><\/p>\n

This is a fresh, nuanced and humane collection of poems with its eye and ear to the world \u2013 to the world of work in particular, and to the craft of survival. It is a wonderful and generous book. The poems welcome you in and hold your attention with their deftness, attentiveness and joy-in-making.<\/p>\n

David Morley\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Winner of The Ted Hughes Award<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cChandler\u2019s portraits of working men and women transcend oppression and celebrate the workers\u2019 skill and spirit. \u2018Chemo Nurse\u2019 sings with authenticity, recreating the banter of a brilliant bedside manner.\u00a0There\u2019s a tremendous amount going on within the collection\u2019s 67 pages. \u2018The Executioner\u2019s Tale\u2019, based on the account of a Filipino policeman, reads like the unflinching reportage of Dan O\u2019Brien and lends a haunting, troubling humanity to the hardest of jobs while poems like \u2018Skipping\u2019 recollect the simplest pleasures with exquisite, painful nostalgia.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Field –<\/strong> from his blog review “Poor Rude Lines”<\/em><\/p>\n

Keith Chandler\u2019s The Goldsmith\u2019s Apprentice<\/i> is a fascinating collection of poems which explores humanity with great empathy and skill. Chandler\u2019s style is insightful and accessible, initially probing the working lives of people and revealing the details which make each job, and each subject, extraordinary. It\u2019s powerful and emotive writing about the everyday stuff we could so easily choose to walk past and ignore.\u00a0The Goldsmith\u2019s Apprentice<\/i> is a triumph; an absorbing and impactful collection of heartfelt poems which should be on the wishlists of glass-eye fitters, fishermen, politicians – and everybody in between.<\/p>\n

Victoria Pickup<\/strong> – from ‘Everybody’s Reviewing’ BlogSpot’<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Some Responses to \u201cThe English Civil War Part 2\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now, with a fanfare, comes the Court Jester, Keith Chandler, though as good jesters do, he speaks unwelcome truths.\u00a0 The title-poem is a hilarious futuristic re-run of the English Civil War; the most serious sequence is a chilly set of poems, \u2018Postcards from Auschwitz\u2019, in different personae. This book is enormously readable, closing with two memorable longer poems, one on the East Coast floods of 1953 and a witty piece in the persona of escapologist Harry Houdini.\u00a0 Read this hilarious and mordant book.\u201d
\n\u00a0Peter Scupham, Poetry Review<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot tell you how much pleasure \u2018The English Civil War Part 2\u2019 gave me – comic genius!\u201d
\n\u00a0Robert Potts (on the title poem)<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cA spellbinding book \u2013 tremendously impressive, entertaining, moving, funny.\u00a0\u00a0 And original.\u00a0 So many poems I come across these days don\u2019t catch my interest \u2013 they don\u2019t seem to be \u2018about\u2019 anything.\u00a0 These poems are always\u00a0 \u2018about\u2019 something.\u201d
\nAnthony Thwaite<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a humane, funny, sometimes biting, very English collection.\u00a0 There is a strong apocalyptic theme running through it, from the title poem to \u2018The Gap\u2019 at the end \u2013 a very fine poem.\u201d
\nGeorge Szirtes<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cMagnificent work from a craftsman of the highest calibre. \u00a0Very highly recommended\u201d
\nPeter Woolridge, The Review<\/b><\/p>\n

Some Reviews of the Earlier Collections<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cConsistently enjoyable: every poem is adeptly constructed, communicating its idea with force and economy.\u00a0 The lack of pretension and fuss, and the sense of these poems being compelled by their author\u2019s passionate involvement with his subject, make this a book well worth getting hold of.\u201d
\nVernon Scannel (The Sunday Telegraph)<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cHis angle on the world is often fresh and funny\u2026equipped with formidable confidence in the face of uncomfortable truths.\u00a0 With taut grip on character and a precise eye for detail, the controlled explosions in Chandler\u2019s work have the right combination of violence and unexpectedness for them to succeed\u201d
\nRennie Parker (Critical Survey)\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cA genuine poet, remarkable for his acuteness of observation and unshowy craftsmanship.\u201d
\nGeorge Szirtes (Poetry Review<\/b>)<\/p>\n

\u201cHilariously satirical, throwing out the home truths in spadefulls, much of \u2018A Different Kind of Smoke\u2019 is so good that it demands to be read out loud. \u00a0In his craft, Chandler has been patient, rather than prolific and is the better writer for it. \u00a0He has been uncompromising in the development of a style that is literate as it is accessible. \u00a0He deserves an ever-expanding readership
\nWill Daunt (Envoi)<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>\u201cVarious poems here pick up quirky habits and actions, always with a smile towards our weaknesses. \u00a0A stunning group of concentration camp poems are as moving as any I have read on this subject.\u201d
\nAnn Born (Poetry Salzburg Review)<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>\u201cChandler\u2019s poetic presence is compassionate and searching. There is much to praise here.\u201d
\nDavid Annwn (The London Magazine)<\/b><\/p>\n

3 Revies of\u00a0<\/b>The Grandpa Years (published 10\/12\/2014)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

“In these wry reflections on aging and, inevitably, mortality, Keith Chandler confronts us with a vision that is by turns brutally honest, wise and comically (anti-) heroic. ‘Rewind’ is a tour de force in which the poet convincingly imagines the experience of regression to the womb.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 – Jeremy Page,\u00a0 The Frogmore Papers<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are serious questions running through this pleasing pamphlet, such as why it is that we become
\nbesotted with toddlers. It is these questions and the recognition of mortality that elevates this sequence
\nfrom a private tribute to a life event into a lyrical consideration of change and time.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Jan Fortune, Envoi<\/strong>
\nThere are strong poems here on the black comedy ofaging and consolations to be found in the company of
\ngrandchildren, but Chandler is best when writing about the invisibility of the old. The title poem is a
\nwonderful answer to Larkin\u2019s \u2018Toad\u2019s Revisited\u2019.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Andy Croft, The Morning Star<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some responses to “The Goldsmith’s Apprentice” (published 18\/4\/2018)\u00a0 Winner of Rubery International Poetry Award, July 2018. \u201cThe Goldsmith\u2019s Apprentice opens with a wonderful sequence of poems about work. From glassworkers to glass eye fitters, these poems understand the routines and insanities of what people do to earn a crust, revealing with great empathy the impact […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8","page","type-page","status-publish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363,"href":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions\/363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}