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Men Who Feed Pigeons Selima Hill

Men Who Feed Pigeons By Selima Hill

Men Who Feed Pigeons by Selima Hill


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Summary

Known for her surreal, disturbing, uncomfortably humorous poems, Selima Hill is one of Britain's leading poets. Her Forward-shortlisted 20th collection brings together seven sequences of short poems relating to men and to women's relationships with men.

Men Who Feed Pigeons Summary

Men Who Feed Pigeons by Selima Hill

Men Who Feed Pigeons brings together seven contrasting but complementary poem sequences by 'this brilliant lyricist of human darkness' (Fiona Sampson) relating to men and different kinds of women's relationships with men. The Anaesthetist is about men at work; The Beautiful Man with the Unpronounceable Name is about someone else's husband; Billy relates to friendship between a man and a woman; Biro is about living next door to a mysterious uncle; The Man in the Quilted Dressing-gown portrays a very particular old man; Ornamental Lakes as Seen from Trains is about a woman and a man she's afraid of; while Shoebill is another sequence about a woman and a man, but quite different from the others. Like all of Selima Hill's work, all seven sequences in this book chart 'extreme experience with a dazzling excess' (Deryn Rees-Jones), with startling humour and surprising combinations of homely and outlandish. Shortlisted for the 2021 Forward Prize for Best Collection.

Men Who Feed Pigeons Reviews

Arguably the most distinctive truth teller to emerge in British poetry...Despite her thematic preoccupations, there's nothing conscientious or worthy about Hill's work. She is a flamboyant, exuberant writer who seems effortlessly to juggle her outrageous symbolic lexicon...using techniques of juxtaposition, interruption and symbolism to articulate narratives of the unconscious. Those narratives are the matter of universal, and universally recognisable, psychodrama...hers is a poetry of piercing emotional apprehension, lightly worn... So original that it has sometimes scared off critical scrutineers, her work must now, surely, be acknowledged as being of central importance in British poetry - not only for the courage of its subject matter but also for the lucid compression of its poetics. -- Fiona Sampson * Guardian *
Selima Hill's Jutland has an astounding vivacity. Hill is a complete original whose body of work is unique in British poetry and this volume is an example of her at her best. Jutland consists of two extended sequences: Advice on Wearing Animal Prints, a kaleidoscope of shifting perspectives presenting the character Agatha, and Sunday Afternoons at the Gravel-pits, portraying a little girl and her father. Each poem tells an uncomfortable truth, through fireworks of surreal images. Every image is a surprise, sometimes funny, usually shocking, but at the same time archetypal as a brand new fairy-tale, and all this is achieved with crystalline brevity. -- Pascale Petit * chair of the 2015 T.S. Eliot Prize judges *
Her adoption of surrealist techniques of shock, bizarre, juxtaposition and defamiliarisation work to subvert conventional notions of self and the feminine... Hill returns repeatedly to fragmented narratives, charting extreme experience with a dazzling excess, -- Deryn Rees-Jones * Modern Women Poets *

About Selima Hill

Selima Hill grew up in a family of painters in farms in England and Wales, and has lived in Dorset for the past 35 years. She received a Cholmondeley Award in 1986, and was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Exeter University in 2003-06. She won first prize in the Arvon International Poetry Competition with part of The Accumulation of Small Acts of Kindness (1989), one of several extended sequences in Gloria: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2008), which also includes work from Saying Hello at the Station (1984), My Darling Camel (1988), A Little Book of Meat (1993), Aeroplanes of the World (1994), Violet (1997), Bunny (2001), Portrait of My Lover as a Horse (2002), Lou-Lou (2004) and Red Roses (2006). Violet was a Poetry Book Society Choice and was shortlisted for all three of the UK's major poetry prizes, the Forward Prize, T.S. Eliot Prize and Whitbread Poetry Award. Bunny won the Whitbread Poetry Award, was a Poetry Book Society Choice and was also shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Lou-Lou and The Hat were Poetry Book Society Recommendations. Her most recent collections from Bloodaxe are The Hat (2008); Fruitcake (2009); People Who Like Meatballs (2012), shortlisted for both the Forward Poetry Prize and the Costa Poetry Award; The Sparkling Jewel of Naturism (2014); Jutland (2015), a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation which was shortlisted for the 2015 T.S. Eliot Prize and was earlier shortlisted for the Roehampton Poetry Prize; The Magnitude of My Sublime Existence (2016), shortlisted for the Roehampton Poetry Prize 2017; Splash like Jesus (2017); and I May Be Stupid But I'm Not That Stupid (2019). Her 20th collection, Men Who Feed Pigeons (2021) is shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection.

Table of Contents

The Anaesthetist 19 The Anaesthetist 19 The Banker 19 The Care Worker 20 The Chauffeur 20 The Childhood Sweetheart 20 The Classics Teacher 21 The Cousin 21 The Dancer 21 The Dentist 22 The Doctor 22 The Doctor of Philosophy 22 The Driver 23 The Duke 23 The Entomologist 23 The Ex 24 The Farmer 24 The Father 24 The Film Director 25 The Finn 25 The Friend 26 The Gardener 26 The Geek 26 The Great-grandfather 27 The History Teacher 27 The Man Who Sits in Saunas 27 The Married Man 28 The Mathematician 28 The Monk 28 The Nurse 29 The Opera Singer 29 The Painter 30 The Patient 30 The Photographer 30 The Poacher 31 The Retired Solicitor 31 The Sailor 31 The Son 32 The Supply Teacher 32 The Tennis Coach 33 The Tennis Player 33 The Tractor Driver 33 The Treasurer 34 The Uncle The Beautiful Man with the Unpronounceable Name 37 Standing on His Doorstep 37 A Happy-looking Man 38 The Beautiful Man Whose Name I Can't Pronounce 38 Never Go Upstairs in the Daytime 39 In the Tiny House 39 The People Who Still Call Themselves My Loved Ones 40 The Toes of the Woman I've Never Met 40 A Cafe We Could Go To 40 God's Gift to Wasps 41 A Cup of Tea 41 The Face of the Woman I've Never Met 42 Never Even Hope 42 A Woman, a Cyclist and a Teapot 43 The Nose of the Woman I've Never Met 43 Hating Me Would Be a Waste of Time 44 What Kind of a Woman Am I? 44 The Word Marriage 44 Baby 45 I'm Never Going to Think of Him Again 45 Bicycles and Tricycles 45 Krasznahorkai, Djokovic, Leghorn 46 They Said It Would Be Hard 46 Eating Potatoes in the Shed 47 The Cake 47 European Night Train Guides 48 Spearmint Freshbreath Mouth-freshening Beads 48 I Hear or Think I Hear on Moonlit Nights Billy 51 My Mother's Extraordinary Hair 51 What It Feels Like to Talk to Him 51 The Plateau Phase 52 Stone 52 Crab 52 Jelly 52 Raging Torrents, Soaring Peaks 53 Rain 53 I Try to Please Everyone 53 The Woman with the Broken Leg 54 Honey 54 Sheep 54 The Sun in All Its Glory 55 His Childhood 55 Romance 55 Restaurant 56 The Long Wait 56 Skinny-dipping 56 The Married Couple 57 The Gents 57 Other Members' Towels 57 Expensive French Cheeses 58 Brandysnaps 58 Everyone Is Watching 58 Friendship 59 As We Leave 59 The Compliment 59 Prawn Cocktails 60 Me and Juan Martin del Potro 60 Doll 60 A New Pair of Fleece-lined Gloves 61 Sitting as Still as I Can 61 Baby 61 The Red-haired Swimmer 62 The Tea Is Cold 62 Fancy Cakes 62 Pain 63 Teabag 63 The Jolly Sailor 63 Shopping 64 My Life as a Pair of Crocs 64 The Extra-large Crab Sandwich 64 The Sea 65 On the Beach 65 Kindness 65 Trolley 66 Dinner 66 Piglets 66 The Surgeon's Ring 66 Walking Back to Happiness 67 Sadness 67 Hollyhock 67 Chihuahuas 68 God 68 The Brunette 68 The Tea Is Never Hot Enough 69 Teddy 69 Chickens 69 Pink-and-white Fairy-cakes 70 Furniture 70 Semolina 70 Buttered Toast 71 The Warmth of the Knife 71 Teapot 71 Sand 72 Midge 72 Cupcake 72 Every Time He Hurts Me I Tell Myself 73 The Man Who Never Smiles 73 Chocolate Pudding 73 His Mother's Dog 74 Table 74 Poodle 74 The Buffalo 75 Bucket 75 What We Need to Think About 75 Hand 76 Corridor 76 The Smile 76 Solutions 77 Photographs of Women with Straight Hair 77 Ammonia 77 In Giant Shorts 78 The Plan 78 Him and Me 78 The Currant Bun 79 A Person Who Is More Amenable 79 Armadillo 79 Giraffes 80 Battleships 80 My Idea of Fun 80 Coffee-pot 81 Thirty Murdered Women 81 Two Bananas and a Frog 81 The Good Fortune of the Man Sitting Opposite Me 82 Badger 82 Mount Fuji 83 Pig 83 My Mother's Car 83 Oxygen 84 Life and Death 84 I Used to Cry 84 Electroencephalographs 85 A Normal Person 85 His New Bobble-hat 85 Prayer 86 Other People's Noses 86 Little Billy 86 Rhinoplasty 87 Golden Sands 87 Hospital 87 A Racehorse Called Rhododendron 88 Sunshine 88 Duty Doctor 88 Profiteroles 89 The Visitor 89 Ears 89 Mother R 90 The Hospital at Night 90 Kilimanjaro, Kilimanjaro, Kilimanjaro Biro 93 The Visitor 93 Like a Man Who's Never Been in Love 93 Rectitude 94 My Uncle and Me in the Tobacconist's 94 My Uncle's Drawing-room 95 My Uncle's Kitchen 95 The Billiard Room 96 My Uncle's Bentley 96 My Uncle's Vegetable Garden 97 My Uncle's Blazer 97 Newts 97 A Housekeeper, a Butler and a Horse 98 Brothers 98 The Baths 99 My Uncle's Mother 99 My Uncle Plays the Piano 99 More than Seven European Languages 100 Artichoke 100 Poppet 101 Silverfish 101 Hotel Wellingtonia 102 Doll 102 The King 103 The Illustrated Guide to British Moths 103 Chocolate Sardines 103 Vivarium 104 When Biro Barks 104 Doctor 104 The Bell 105 My Uncle's Horse 105 Cow 106 The Doctor 106 Photograph of a Baby 107 Key 107 The Word Jodhpurs 107 Berries 108 Spiders 108 My So-called Personality Disorder 108 What to Wear on Horseback 109 Fathead 109 My Uncle's Bedroom 110 Cheerfulness 110 Ostriches The Man in the Quilted Dressing-gown 113 His Hairy Ears 113 His Semolina 114 His Most Precious Possession 114 His Incomparable Picnics 115 His Stony Silence 115 His Slender Ankles 116 His Little Rest 116 His Missing Spectacle-case 117 His Passion for Musicals 117 His Itchy Fingers 117 His Curvy Ladies 118 His Dusty Dressing-gown 118 His Useful Walking-stick 119 His Toasty Socks 119 His Shaky Hands 120 His Love of Opera 120 His Pinks 120 His Starry Nights 121 His Enormous Feet 121 His Victoria Sponge 122 His Big Blue Face 123 His Bushy Hair 123 His Mugs of Coffee 124 His Sticky Florentine Ornamental Lakes Seen from Trains 127 Sandy Hollows, Godless Pines 127 The Pit of His Stomach 128 His Eyes 128 Californian Waffles 129 Warmth 129 His Hand 130 Man on a Lawn 130 Chickens 130 The Height 131 The Golden Pennies 131 You Either Love a Person or You Don't 132 Sauerkraut 132 Chicken Thigh 132 Windowpane 133 The Eerie Llama 133 The Chair 133 My Horse-hoof Soup 134 Castle 134 Fear of Coffee 135 Wedding Cake 135 The Tank 136 Bitter Chocolates on a Silver Tray 136 The Mourner 137 Why I Love Gyrocopters 137 The Tall Man 138 One Morning in July 138 Ornamental Lakes as Seen from Trains Shoebill 141 Elbow 141 Snowdrop 142 Hare 142 It's Like a Dream 143 Pig 143 Bird 144 The Wall 144 The Edge of Town 145 Mole 145 Watcher 146 You Hold Me in Your Lap 146 Your Hair Against My Back 147 Fish 147 Skinny as a Rake 148 Sandbag 148 Ugly 149 Like the Flightless Birds 149 Goblin 150 The Love of Your Life 150 Mice 151 The Coat 151 Hands 152 The Hospital in Winter 152 Cats with Spots 153 Suitcase 153 Your Beautiful Long Hair 154 You Tell Me That You Love Me 154 The House 155 The Moth at Night 155 Cake 156 Bedside-locker Pig Farm 156 Frosty Weather 157 Dot 157 Summertime

Additional information

GOR012550922
9781780375861
1780375867
Men Who Feed Pigeons by Selima Hill
Used - Like New
Paperback
Bloodaxe Books Ltd
20210916
160
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
The book has been read, but looks new. The book cover has no visible wear, and the dust jacket is included if applicable. No missing or damaged pages, no tears, possible very minimal creasing, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins

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