Penned In the Margins Poetry Series at Aubin & Wills: Kennard & Dockrill
Here are some thing that I’m not that in to: West London, waxed jackets, spoken word. While I remain indifferent to the former two, the performances (at a boutique in Notting Hill against a backdrop of country-appropriate garb) of these two young British poets were so breathtaking and electrifying that I bought both of their books immediately. You should, too.
You like the environment, I said to Lauren. Let’s go see this film about dolphins.
Is a nature film about dolphins swimming around? she said.
No, they’re getting killed in this film, I said.
Oh, said Lauren.
By the end of this environmentalism-cum-spy thriller doc (what narrative!), I was a vegetarian.
C Kelly Martin and I share an agent, who handed me a copy of this book when I was having a meeting with her the other day - thankfully, as I am sure I might otherwise have missed it. I don’t read a lot of YA fiction these days, being not that Y any more, but this was riveting: Martin’s ability to capture the ambiguity of adolescence is extraordinary and exact. And she is also a brilliant writer - no patronising here. I wish she was publishing books when I was 15.
