Beware Falling Tortoises

by Sheenagh Pugh

A falling tortoise is a bizarre way to meet one's end, but it is typical of Sheenagh Pugh's wry humour that it finds a place in her poetry. The more humorous aspects of mortality and human frailty receive the same alert consideration as sombre subjects such as dictatorship, torture, the Dieppe raid and pollution. Whether describing the significance of the maximum break in snooker or exploring the mind of a Nazi, Sheenagh pugh's individual voice resonates through her crafted poetry.

72 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1987

About the author

I was born in 1950. I live in Shetland with my husband. I have published nine collections of poetry and translations, plus a Selected Poems and a sort of mini-Selected, two novels and a critical study of fan fiction (see Books). I translate poems mainly from German but sometimes also from French and Ancient Greek. I read German and Russian at the University of Bristol and used to teach creative writing at the University of Glamorgan. I still visit Cardiff, where I used to live, regularly.

My interests are language, history, northern landscapes from Shetland to the Arctic and all points in between, snooker, mortality, cyberspace (I waste massive amounts of time online) and above all, people. I like to use poems to commemorate people and places, sometimes to amuse, to have a go at things I don't like (censorship, intolerance, pomposity) and above all to entertain.

I have been accused of being "populist" and "too accessible", both of which I hope are true.

I have won many prizes and awards, including the Forward Prize for best single poem of 1998, the Bridport Prize, the PHRAS prize, the Cardiff International Poetry Prize (twice) and the British Comparative Literature Association's Translation Prize. My poems have been included in several anthologies, notably Poems on the Underground and The Hutchinson Book of Post-War British Poetry. They have also been set to music, have appeared on the trams of Helsinki and the St Petersburg Underground, and have been translated into German, French, Italian, Russian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch.

My website is at http://sheenagh.webs.com/ and my blog is at http://sheenaghpugh.livejournal.com/. It's usually about writing-related stuff.

I'm not adding any more friends on Goodreads and will ignore all requests - nothing personal, it's just too much trouble.