School of Forgery, by yours truly, is out now and available to buy. It’s published by Salt, and is the culmination of my last – oh, I don’t know – four or five years of writing activity. But it doesn’t just hoover up my various outpourings and stuff them into one handsome hard-cover; it’s a book with its own identity, structure and unhealthy preoccupations. Anything which didn’t fit has been left over for later. Essentially, the major theme is the relationship between invention and fakery, or falseness, and there’s a huge influence of Japanese subculture on the various poems. The contents are divided into ‘Originals’ and ‘Fakes’. There are pieces inspired by, about, screwing with or riffing on Seven Samurai, The Avengers (that’s the British version), Bleach, Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto, mustard, Nell Gwynn, plastic surgery, octopuses, ginger, witches’ familiars, Battle of the Planets, Tom Jones, MI6, Celan and more besides.
It’s a Poetry Book Society summer recommendation, and if there’s one couplet in the book that describes the whole affair, I’d say it’s this:
And some of it will be intelligence.The best (ie. most ethical) place to buy it is from Salt’s website. It’s available from Amazon as well, but Salt are a small publisher for whom every sale counts, and more money goes to them if you buy straight from them. Plus they’ll probably get it to you much faster.
And some of it you’ll think makes too much sense.
News of a joint launch with fellow Salt poet John Clegg to follow.
