Red, Cherry Red

by Jackie Kay

Jackie Kay explores the theme of identity in poems about an older generation, especially grandmothers, about the old days and the new days, and places the poet associates with these people, who live dreamlike, isolated existences, geographically, but also in the memory.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

86 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Born in Glasgow in 1961 to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father, Kay was adopted by a white couple, Helen and John Kay, as a baby. Brought up in Bishopbriggs, a Glasgow suburb, she has an older adopted brother, Maxwell as well as siblings by her adoptive parents.

Kay's adoptive father worked full-time for the Communist Party and stood for election as a Member of Parliament, and her adoptive mother was the secretary of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

Initially harbouring ambitions to be an actress, she decided to concentrate on writing after encouragement by Alasdair Gray. She studied English at the University of Stirling and her first book of poetry, the partially autobiographical The Adoption Papers, was published in 1991, and won the Saltire Society Scottish First Book Award. Her other awards include the 1994 Somerset Maugham Award for Other Lovers, and the Guardian Fiction Prize for Trumpet, based on the life of American jazz musician Billy Tipton, born Dorothy Tipton, who lived as a man for the last fifty years of her life.

Kay writes extensively stage, screen, and for children. In 2010 she published Red Dust Road, an account of her search for her birth parents, a white Scottish woman, and a Nigerian man. Her birth parents met when her father was a student at Aberdeen University and her mother was a nurse. Her drama The Lamplighter is an exploration of the Atlantic slave trade. It was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in March 2007 and published in poem form in 2008.

Jackie Kay became a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) on 17 June 2006. She is currently Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University. Kay lives in Manchester.



Jackie Kay was born and brought up in Scotland. THE ADOPTION PAPERS (Bloodaxe, 1991) won the Forward Prize, a Saltire prize and a Scottish Arts Council Prize. DARLING was a poetry book society choice. FIERE, her most recent collection of poems was shortlisted for the COSTA award. Her novel TRUMPET won the Guardian Fiction Award and was shortlisted for the IMPAC award. RED DUST ROAD, (Picador) won the Scottish Book of the Year Award, was shortlisted for the JR ACKERLEY prize and the LONDON BOOK AWARD. She was awarded an MBE in 2006, and made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002. Her book of stories WISH I WAS HERE won the Decibel British Book Award.
She also writes for children and her book RED CHERRY RED (Bloomsbury) won the CLYPE award. She has written extensively for stage and television. Her play MANCHESTER LINES produced by Manchester Library Theatre was on this year in Manchester. Her new book of short stories REALITY, REALITY was recently published by Picador. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University.

Reviews

[Reading_ Tamishly · Rating 4 out of 5]

It feels like I haven’t read a good poetry collection in a very, very, very long time!

This beautiful compilation of poems displays the young author’s passion for love of words, playing with them yet at the same time punches you with all the emotions of a young mind.

I love the illustrations and the way the poems have been compiled.

I would say I love this collection more for the all the feels in between the lines. It reminds me of the times I was a teen once and went through similar things.

So worth it!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A neat little illustrated book of verse, with the added bonus of a CD of the author reading the poems in her gentle Scots accent. Kay also makes comments, not printed in the book, on some of her poems, providing an added dimension of cosy intimacy. I could imagine the wind and weather swirling outside a cottage, being sat in the warm living room in front of an open fire, a glass of whisky in hand (OK, more likely a cup of tea), listening to Kay recite her poems, and having a wee chat between them as she remembers what inspired her to write.

The poems talk of old women, fishermen, knitting, school children, trees, and longing. They are evocative and immediate, not at all obscure or oblique. Rob Ryan's black-and-white drawings nicely compliment the verses.

[Joan]

Poetry. Wonderful as in introduction to poetry and/or ideal for younger readers too. Such variety in formats and styles, topics and subject matter brought to lifee all the more with tha accompanying CD. The poet's work read by her as she would have heard it in her own head during writing, an ideal way to learn about the essential importance of rhythm and punctuation in poetry. Just smashing.

[Jack Deighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite why this volume of poetry comes under the imprint of a children’s publisher is slightly mystifying. I would say that the poems it contains are not particularly restricted to a child audience. Lines like, “Time is a loop stitch. I knit to keep death away,” would certainly indicate as much. However, grandmothers and knitting are recurrent subjects.
Some of the more memorable poems came towards the end of the book.
Great-Grandmother’s Lament contrasts the present-day childhood engagement with screens to what occurred in the past. Shetland is a love poem to that archipelago and includes sly allusions to lines from popular songs. Like its title, The Nine Lives of the Cat Mandu riffs, punningly or otherwise, on the word ‘cat’ or proverbs/phrases involving either it or the three letters it contains in their order. First and Foremost does something similar for ‘first’. Double Trouble uses opposites to make its point. Sour Sixteen embodies the passage of a child’s life to that age in terms of how quickly those years pass for a parent. First X compares voting for the first time, with thanks to the suffragettes, to a first kiss, x.

[Raquel Pilar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poetry books, for me, are surprise boxes that I like to open (a random page) when I feel lost. Or angry. Or way too happy.
Jackie Kay's poems are delightful, of course not all of them actually caught me, but those that did... Wow. ❤️
I specially loved "the moon at Knowle Hill"!

[Megan Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations from one of my favourite artists!

[Macklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked a lot of these poems. Identity, old age, the sea. Yep ticked a lot of my boxes.

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite liked this one! Some were v effective - particularly liked the one about Dungeon Brae. Accessible, which is always a good thing for me as I don’t know how to ‘appreciate’ poetry in the slightest.

[Eleanor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jackie Kay seems like a really nice person. I really very enjoyed the experience of listening to all the poems being read as I read them myself. Few of the poems themselves really got me, but I found little bits of each that I liked. Maybe it's because this collection is aimed at children, but lots of these were inspired by more external things or articles or stories or the like. I very much got the vibe that this is a person who goes into schools and teaches kids about poetry.