halfbakedpoemz

BOOK REVIEW- THE GALLOWS POLE BY BENJAMIN MYERS The Yahhhkshire Moorland. Squelcheh leaves. Mulch and muck. Fookin political uprisin’ and clippin’ coins, becos the Moorlands is common lands for the men of the countreh.  Funnily enough this isn’t an actual quote from Myer’s historical crime drama, but I think I sum it up quite nicely. The novel is more Yorkshire than a Yorkshire pudding dipped in a Yorkshire tea and served with Wensleydale. And what a joy it is. A huge Shane Meadows fan, I got a few eps into his prequel/adaptation on the bbc and picked up the book from a vintage shop in Haworth, when really I should have been thinking about the Bronte sisters. Although, I certainly think Gallows Pole would be up Emily’s street. The novel is based around a real-life criminal gang, the Cragg Vale coin clippers, who, led by ‘King’ David Hartley upended the 18th-century economy and stole back some autonomy from suffocating land laws being imposed on the Yorkshire Moorlands. Myers’ inter...

BOOK REVIEW: EARWIG BY BRIAN CATLING Hello. Turn of events. I’ve finished the old A-levels and delightfully have sweet FA to do (well, almost) but am going through a real poetical dry spell. It’s this bloody heatwave! I’ve tried to write- but its all roses are red, violets are blue tripe so, if at first you don’t succeed, stop flipping trying. Instead of mooching about all day on instagram reels, I’ve been mooching about all day with a stack of books from WOB- that’s about 5% more productive, so why not give it an extra 2% and mooch about on my iPad tapping out some reviews.  Anyway, autobiography out of the way, I never thought I’d feel strongly enough about a book to actually write about it of my own volition (No, A-level English does not count) but that was until I came along to this delightful book. At precisely 150 pages, this slender, neat novella is the equivalent of a cat-scratch across the face: sharp, unpredictable, and leaving you to wonder what on earth it was for....