Nowhere Better Than This

by Anthony Wilson

72 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 2002

About the author

I am a lecturer, poet and writing tutor. I work in teacher and medical education at the University of Exeter. My anthology Lifesaving Poems, based on the blog of the same name, is available from Bloodaxe Books. Love for Now, my memoir of cancer, is published by Impress Books. Deck Shoes, a book of prose memoir and criticism, and The Afterlife, my fifth book of poems, are available now from Impress Books and Worple Press. My current research project is Young Poets' Stories: https://youngpoetsstories.com/. I blog about poetry, illness, mental health, mindfulness and education. My blog is archived by the British Library.

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

I highly rate Anthony Wilson's "Lifesaving Poems" and his poetry blog - I enjoy the analytical insight, heartfelt clarity and openness of reflections on poems, poetry and writing; his style is eloquent, never verbose. This is a much earlier work than 2015's LP, first published in 2002, I see it as a very personal record of his life as an emergent writer with a young family - without wanting to sound disparaging - this is poetry of the mundane which I actually like as a subject matter - I like that the poetry is relatable, understandable and grounded (in a mildly middle class way) however I look for, want and even expect more from the sound of the words used - there is very little to appreciate sonically - the assonance, consonance and alliteration, not so much as a single line with a coffee-tea-strawberry handclap of rhythm. Quite a few poems were little more than diary entries with only a few lines containing any kind of poetic abstraction but I did grow into the book which I read in drips and drabs (as I like to deep read poetry - I never skim read) over a couple of hours over a couple of days. I would still be interested to read a later book of his than this.