Trouble Came to the Turnip

by Caroline Bird

Ferociously vital, savagely humorous, and self-mocking, this poetry collection focuses on a world that is inhabited by failed and successful relationships during the dizzying crisis of early adulthood, offering insight into the pleasures and pains of growing up.

Genres: Poetry

106 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Caroline Bird was born in 1986 and grew up in Leeds before moving to London in 2001.

Caroline had been shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize twice in 2008 and 2010 and was the youngest writer on the list both times. She was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2014. She has also won an Eric Gregory Award (2002) and the Foyle Young Poet of the Year award two years running (1999, 2000), and was a winner of the Poetry London Competition in 2007, the Peterloo Poetry Competition in 2004, 2003 and 2002. Caroline was on the shortlist for Shell Woman Of The Future Awards 2011.

Caroline has had four collections of poetry published by Carcanet. Her first collection Looking Through Letterboxes (published in 2002 when she was only 15) is a topical, zesty and formally delightful collection of poems built on the traditions of fairy tale, fantasy and romance. Her second collection, Trouble Came to the Turnip, was published in September 2006 to critical acclaim. Watering Can, her third collection published in November 2009 celebrates life as an early twenty-something with comedy, wordplay and bright self-deprecation. Her fourth collection, The Hat-Stand Union, was described by Simon Armitage as ‘spring-loaded, funny, sad and deadly.’ Her fifth collection, In These Days of Prohibition, is due to be published July 2017.

Bird’s poems have been published in several anthologies and journals including Poetry Magazine, PN Review, Poetry Review and The North magazine. Several of her poems and a commissioned short story, Sucking Eggs, have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 3. She was one of the five official poets at London Olympics 2012. Her poem, The Fun Palace, which celebrates the life and work of Joan Littlewood, is now erected on the Olympic Site outside the main stadium.

In recent years, Caroline has given poetry performances at Aldeburgh Festival, Latitude Festival, the Manchester Literature Festival, the Wellcome Collection (with Don Paterson,) the Royal Festival Hall (with Elaine Feinstein), St Hilda’s College (with Wendy Cope), the Wordsworth Trust (with Gillian Allnutt), Cheltenham Festival, and Ledbury Festival, amongst others.

Caroline Bird began writing plays as a teenager when she was the youngest ever member of the Royal Court Young Writer’s Programme, tutored by Simon Stephens. In 2011 Caroline was invited to take part in Sixty Six Books by the Bush Theatre. She wrote a piece inspired by Leviticus, directed by Peter Gill. In February 2012, her Beano-inspired musical, The Trial of Dennis the Menace was performed in the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre. She is currently writing the book and lyrics for Dennis the Menace the Musical for The Old Vic.

Caroline’s new version of The Trojan Women premiered at the Gate Theatre at the end of 2012 to wide critical acclaim. Caroline’s play Chamber Piece featured as Show 3 in the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith’s Secret Theatre season, premiering in October 2013, before touring the country. In 2013, Caroline was short-listed for Most Promising New Playwright at the Off-West-End Awards. In Christmas 2015, her re-twisted telling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz premiered at Northern Stage, and received a four star review in The Times.

Caroline is also an enthusiastic leader of poetry workshops. In addition to working in primary and secondary schools, she is also a regular teacher at the Arvon Foundation. She is one of the writers-in-residence for the charity First Story. She is currently mentoring three exciting poets – Rachel Long, Emma Simon and Hilary Watson – for the Jerwood Arvon Mentorship Scheme.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Winner of the Simon Elvin Young Poets of the Year Award in 1999 and 2000, and the Peterloo Poets Competition for Young Poets in 2002, 2003, and 2004, Caroline Bird (born 1986) might be expected to produce great poems. If so, they weren't in this book, which is unstoppable in its surprising wording, but lacks real underlying emotion. It is mostly an exercise in stringing together completely unrelated words, but using a recognizable form (often repetition) so that the words do in fact make a kind of dizzying sense, despite their seeming incompatability. This is a charming technique for maybe 10 pages or so, but it probably isn't enough to base an 106-page book on. There is a diminishing marginal return problem with this book. On the other hand, maybe I'm just bitter because Caroline Bird is so much younger than me and so much more successful (in the U.K. at least -- oh, face it, everywhere!).

[Cellophane Renaissance · Rating 3 out of 5]

The speed of a parked car.



Maybe I am all self-centred
like a sandwich filled with bread.


these grey… no, let’s be fair,
purple with all the purple taken out… streets.



Sorry for balancing an apple on your head
then shooting you in the cheek.

Sorry for attaching your Chihuahua to an electric whisk.



and my life was a coin in the grass,

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love love love Caroline Bird’s writing! my favourites in this collection were ‘relationship dolls’, ‘the fairy is bored with her garden’, ‘the lady with the lamp’ and ‘remains’. all of the poems were gorgeous though and full of metaphors which i love in poetry

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

'a bonnet with a complex...honey bleeding from my ears'

'petrol emerald slippers...oozing concrete joy'

'...to love in return for a loaf...'

'you've planted a ghost in my gullet'