Thursday 25 August 2011

Chris W. Gill - Verses

The 23-year-old Camden based writer is making his literary debut this summer with a collection of poetry produced over the past four years. Verses presents Chris’ journey into manhood reflecting on past, present and future through a carefully selected compilation of beautifully crafted verse.


I have known Chris for a million years since we were 12 or something and at the same school and later, still, when we were older and more loud but less confident (I assume) we sang together once or twice at a piano and we promised to write poetry forever.

His work, this. These Verses and these words. I like them. It’s hard not to. I like how they look and feel and smell and sound in my ears as I read them.

Split into four sections, the book begins with an overview of where the writer is in his life today, kicking off with the confessional poem Catacombs. Here he describes his trials and tribulations as a young man making his way in a big city with a “pocket full of dreams”.

Escape to the docks is a far darker section that presents us with a narrative of his student life and deals with the themes suicide and hedonism. This flows into the third section of the book Home, which reverts back in time to Chris’ childhood, giving an exclusive insight into his relationship with his family.

The final chapter of the book, Wires, sees the experimental writer turn far more outward as he expresses his political views and concerns about the environment. The final segment of the book includes the exceptionally epic Wires that takes the reader on a powerful exploration into Chris’ inner psyche.


The book: Recycled paper hand bound with precise fingers that smells like all the love that went into it. Small and perfectly formed. Rainy day reading, perfect for a morning like this when everything is wet and grey and I am safe inside. A beautifully tactile book, paper gentle on my fingertips, a joy to hold.


The poetry: Candid and bold and beautifully formed. A journey we take with a young man finding his head amongst the concrete and history of a city that breathes words, like he does, for us, on this paper.




 Find all the information you need to read and buy and love this book here and here. Italicised text quoted from the PRNTD Publishing website.


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