It’s quite a task to review this tome. Not because one struggles to find anything good to say, or something genuine to critique, but because of its sheer size. Many poets would be happy to produce a slim pamphlet of maybe twenty poems, exploring a theme… but Garvey-like Gail throws those curtains wide and provides an entire year year’s worth of poetry and prose in a humongous volume of no less than one hundred and ninety-eight pages of prose and rhyme. That’s a genuine one hundred and ninety-eight pages too… that doesn't include the opening page – in itself a poem! – the introduction or the contents. Bang for buck you are on a winner here. One could say it’s also the book’s biggest failing… it is really a year’s worth of reading, for a year’s worth of writing. And hence my opening sentence. Perhaps too much of a good thing… (Shakespearean scholars may look away…)
Perhaps the way to approach this work is however to view it a collection of pamphlets – Gail has eschewed a chronological approach to this year-long collation, and has bracketed her poems and prose into chapters. Buy one, get eight free really.
Her stuff encompasses a huge breadth of genres. As she explains in her own foreword it is “sacred and satirical, vulgar and sweet”, and to some degree the pamphlets-cum-chapters reflect that all. Her rapier wit shines forth with no holds barred unconcealed satire in the opening chapter “Fair Game”… name a major public figure in 2015-16 and there’s a chance they’ll pop up. There’s dissatisfaction at the electorate of the UK as a broader target, political parties, and pressure groups. The language can be ripe too… all grist to the mill. Kim Jong Un, Katie Hopkins, Jeremy Corbyn, Donald Trump – all come under fire with immense humour and ridicule. Bloody marvellous.
Then her love of the town she calls home shines through in pamphlet two “Down in The Vize”. If you live there, you’ll recognise an awful lot… if you don’t live there you end up feeling you do. Here too though the subject matter is broad and even peripheral and even with the very loosest of connections – “Thoughts on Public transport” isn’t about The Vize at all… but what does it matter? There are clear cross overs between pamphlets – sorry chapters – too… certainly local MP Claire Perry comes in for some treatment from Gail which could have appeared in the opening chapter, in “Shopping with Claire Perry” … perhaps this didn’t appear in “Fair Game” (chapter one) as Ms Perry perhaps did enough to ridicule herself [Ed. – allegedly!] “The Tale of the wobbly bog” – an attack on the lack of authorities action on inadequate sewer provision which appear in chapter one is as much at home in chapter two, as it is about a street in The ‘Vize.. In this it shows the dilemma Gail was faced with in attempting to bracket these chapters. So much work, so little time and it’s all a Venn diagram anyway. (Now there’s an intriguing thought for a list of contents somewhen… as they say in the ‘Vize and may have done so in “Wasson, You?” in this chapter.
It’s not all satire and jibes and coarse language of course. (See what I did there?). “Deaths and Epitaphs” is full of poignant pieces, of those Gail has known mainly. Possibly this is her finest work in this book… real connections with real people. Not schmaltzy, but “just so”. Not all are tear jerkers or throat lumpers, and not all are people that she knew personally… a couple of poems about Howard Marks are here, with humour too.
Then a chapter devoted to horsing around, being daft, inspired by social media. There’s little context in some of these leaving the reader wondering where the proverbial did that come from. Set this way this chapter comes over as somewhat disjointed – which doesn't make it pointless or wrong…. Just a bit odd in places. But then again … isn't a writers’ raison d'etre to make us think? And wonder? There’s some seriousness here still, and also the trademark rough edged carry-on humour … “Not much on the telly” is classic in her style here and may be one of the least context-less additions here… depending how much you remember about old and odd news stories! There are other pearls here too it must be said including some self-criticism in “Monster Twat”.
By now dear reader you must be wondering if Gail has actually written anything that isn’t full of innuendo, filth and satire. It’s probably my own preferences that have highlighted these style of poems so far, I confess. There is truly deep work here too, to be honest far too deep and meaningful for a philistine like me, but the final chapter “Christians, Druids and Light” includes nineteen poems about Gail’s faith and spiritualism. Not that there isn't some nudge-nudge-wink-wink stuff here too, but this is the chapter to delve into her soul, none more so than the almost seminal work “The Curious Offering of the Sacristan”, then the touching “Midnight Mass, St John’s” discussing simple facets of an annual event… and another annual event’s aspects in “The Solstice Door” illuminating her multi-angles approach to her beliefs.
I've not touched on other chapters here… because to do so would merely exhaust me of compliments and superlatives. As I said at the beginning – the biggest problem with “A Curious Poet” is that there is so much to take in. So I suggest you do take it in… it’s a real day pack book, a toiler library tome. Dip in and out of it… pick a page, flick through it the bus some time. It’s a winner that is for sure – there is definitely something here for everyone. So everyone… should own it.
