Author:Fiona Benson
**WINNER OF THE FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST COLLECTION 2019**
**WINNER OF THE ROEHAMPTON PRIZE FOR BEST POETRY COLLECTION 2019**
Violence hangs over this book like an electric storm. Beginning with a poem about the teenage dawning of sexuality, Vertigo & Ghost pitches quickly into a long sequence of graphic, stunning pieces about Zeus as a serial rapist, for whom woman are prey and sex is weaponised. These are frank, brilliant, devastating poems of vulnerability and rage, and as Zeus is confronted with aggressions both personal and historical, his house comes crumbling down. A disturbing contemporary world is exposed, in which violent acts against women continue to be perpetrated on a daily – hourly – basis.
The book shifts, in its second half, to an intimate and lyrical document of depression and family life. It sounds out the complex and ambivalent terrain of early motherhood – its anxieties and claustrophobias as well as its gifts of tenderness and love – reclaiming the sanctuary of domestic private life, and the right to raise children in peace and safety.
Vertigo & Ghost is an important, necessary book, hugely impressive in its range and risk, and dramatic in its currency: a collection that speaks out with clarity, grace and bravery against the abuse of power.
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE**
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 T. S. ELIOT PRIZE**
‘Misogynistic violence, ancient myth and modern rage confront each other in moving and dynamic verse’ Financial Times
Vertigo & Ghost explodes into furious life with a series of poems and fragments about the Greek god Zeus... jagged, staccato poems that shoot down the pages like lightning bolts... an addictive, thrilling, sickening experience.
—— John Self , GuardianVertigo & Ghost knocked the breath from me. Such furious, fierce, ecstatic poems, at once brutal and heartachingly tender; I lay awake at night unable to stop thinking about them. Mothers and children, girls and women, their vulnerabilities and sorrows, fears amidst grave danger, their beautiful animal selves. Against a frightening darkness, these "sore jewels" radiate wild white-heat.
—— Liz BerryThis extraordinarily moving collection is a bold confrontation of violence against women. Vertigo & Ghost is one of the darkest, bravest and most unsettling collections I have read in a while.
—— Kate Kellaway , ObserverAn exceptional achievement.
—— Paul Bailey , Literary Review[A] tour-de-force... [Vertigo & Ghost] has generated a lot of (justified) buzz... poems of lasting power.
—— Tristram Fane Saunders , Telegraph *Poetry Book of the Month*Though this is only her second collection, it’s already clear that Fiona Benson is an exceptional and exceptionally gifted poet. She has a fine ear and a sure hand. Her poems engage with what in our inner lives is most crucial and most at risk. There are poems in this book that scour the skin and must be read.
—— David HarsentPromise me you'll read these aloud... [Vertigo & Ghost is] brilliantly chilling... Flick to a random page, take a deep breath, and dive in.
—— Tristram Fane Saunders , Daily Telegraph, **Books of the Year**Misogynistic violence, ancient myth and modern rage confront each other in moving and dynamic verse.
—— Maria Crawford , Financial Times, *Books of the Year*Benson is one of the finest English poets writing today.
—— Week[Benson] is bravely and unfashionably, a high Romantic.
—— Tristram Fane Saunders , Daily Telegraph[Wroe] captures here the essential spirit of the saint – himself a poet after all, whose work has never died – making this a delight to read. A book not to be missed.
—— Peter Costello , Irish CatholicThis is a book full of complex engagements with the word and the flesh, and the counterpointed rhythms of the sacred and the secular. Wroe’s book is a praise song, vindicating the worlds beyond our rationalist compass.
—— David Wheatley , GuardianThe spiritual is vivid through quality and vitality in this poetry. Wroe’s writing method is incarnational, translating the apparently mundane into rich parables.
—— Martyn Halsall , Church TimesAn elegant hardback with ambitions beyond the poetry shelves… Ann Wroe’s unusual and impressive book is less a Life of Francis than a series of…epiphanies and personal revelations inspired by his imagined company.
—— John Greening , Times Literary SupplementThis joyous and thoughtful tribute leaves you wanting more.
—— Sophie Ratcliffe , TLSBy Jove! It's a ripping old yarn... Dashed agreeably close to the master.
—— Daily MailA hugely enjoyable caper
—— The WeekThere are laughs and admirable ingenuity in Schott’s confection
—— Irish TimesA book that is so close in spirit and style to the PG Wodehouse originals it’s like the real thing
—— The SportTop-notch fun.
—— S magazineSucceeds triumphantly, both as light entertainment and as a tribute to the master
—— Country & Town HouseIn his first foray into PG Wodehouse homage/imitation/pastiche (whichever it may be) Schott appeared to hit the Wodehouse target dead on.
—— RTEJonathan Coe's Middle England is brilliantly insightful on the times we are living in
—— Mishal Husain, Books of the Year , Big IssueLet me add to the chorus of praise for Jonathan Coe's new book Middle England. Easily my favourite of his since What a Carve Up! Which did for Thatcherism what Middle England does for Brexit
—— John CraceAn astute, enlightened and enlightening journey into the heart of our current national identity crisis. Both moving and funny. As we'd expect from Coe
—— Ben EltonFrom post-industrial Birmingham to the London riots and the current political gridlock, it takes in family, literature and love in a comedy for our times
—— GuardianCoe can make you smile, sigh, laugh; he has abundant sympathy for his characters
—— ScotsmanThis book is sublimely good. State of the (Brexit) nation novel to end them all, but also funny, tender, generous, so human and intelligent about age and love as well as politics
—— India KnightProbably the best English novelist of his generation
—— Nick HornbyNo modern novelist is better at charting the precariousness of middle-class life
—— ObserverAn angry and exuberant book
—— Sunday Times on 'Number 11'Jonathan Coe has established himself as one of the most entertaining chroniclers of our times
—— TatlerYou can't stop reading....I was haunted for days
—— Independent on 'Number 11'