With these hands: A collection of work

by Pam Ayres

From the topical to the hilarious, this collection encompasses the spectrum of Pam Ayres' talent. She writes with great wit and perspicacity on such topics as the pollution of the beaches, the demise of the Church and the cult of Sunday Shopping, as well as the National Lottery and the Wonderbra.

Genres: Poetry

Hardcover

First published December 31, 1997

About the author

Pam Ayres is a poet and published author of children's books. Some of her published credits include Guess Who, Guess What, Piggo and the Fork Lift Truck.

Reviews

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many similar memories!!

[Di Castle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book with poems interspersed with narrative aspects of Pam's life.
How I identify with her parody of barbecues having had my other half take three hours to cook food some years ago as guests became hungrier and hungrier. I too wanted someone to take the barbecue away.
Includes a favourite 'Will I have to be Sexy at Sixty?'

[Nicole Hughes-Chen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a really small book consisting of some poetry and some short stories/explanations as to how Ayres thought of some of the poems. There are also a couple of skits in the back.

I do like the way the book is formatted; I think the poems mean a little more when you know how they were thought of. Some of the stories have some random bits in though that don't really have any relevance and Ayres goes off tangent a bit.

For example, there is a short story where Ayres speaks about her experience in a gym. She mentions the smell that hits her on entering; "The first one was the smell. The place was properly ventilated and air-conditioned, but nevertheless people appeared to be strapped round the walls performing difficult movements while in agony". I don't think this has anything to do with the smell and people don't tend to be strapped into gym equipment so it's hard to picture this scene.

Poetry wise I don't think there's anything that great. No deep meaningful poems that draw out any emotions, nothing that made me crack up, nothing that I'd want to quote. The two skits at the end are a nice change, however the first one about the hairdresser was a bit rude and not really funny. The second one and last element in the book was very underwhelming and I didn't think it was funny at all. I would expect the last part of the book to be the best, the headliner if you will, something to leave an impression and make you want to read more from the author. But this florist skit did not do this at all. Very underwhelming. I think I can write better!!!

[Dane Cobain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pam Ayres is great. Review done.

Nah, in all seriousness, Pam Ayres is always a barrel of laughs, even when she’s taking on tough topics. She has the ability to write about tough subjects with a wry humour that stops her work from becoming too bleak, unlike someone like Charles Bukowski. Both are great. Both are very different.

In this collection, we have a combination of her poetry and her monologues, with the two of them working tightly together to deliver a more cohesive whole. The result is the feeling that you’ve just gone to see her deliver a performance.

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Pam Ayres. Here are the stories, the anecdotes, the poems that we know and love – and some we didn't know. It is light, amusing, and a pleasure to flick through. It is perfect for just before bedtime because the stories and poems are pretty short, so if you get sleepy, you can just read one or two and pick it up again tomorrow. Charming.

[Patrick Stapleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit I couldn’t take to her when I was a child listening to her on the TV, but now, I read and find her musings refreshing. I tried "stiffer" more formal poetry recently but this is much better value. Laughs galore!

[M.J.P. Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was dissapointingly little poetry. What there was in between long anecdotes was mostly good. Not the classic Ayres I was expecting.

[Martin Shone · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always enjoy reading Pam Ayres's poetry but in this book I much preferred her autobiographical prose pieces.

[Teresa Gosling · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the autobiographical pieces in this book. Although Pam is older than me there are parallels with my 1960s childhood. The plays are very funny as well as the poems. A great read.

[Catherine Pinkett · Rating 3 out of 5]

library book club choice for February
Pam Eyre's did great things in the 70s and 80s along with Spike Milligan to get the masses more
interested in modern poetry. She has a knack of observing everyday people and situations and putting it into poetry. A latter day Peter Kay in verse.
Not particularly my sort of thing but humourous