Fiends Fell

by Tom Pickard

In FIENDS FELL, Tom Pickard charts a single year out of a decade spent on a bare hilltop near the English-Scottish border, with the roaring wind as his only guide. In journal entries interspersed with lyrics and poems, as in Japanese haibun, he records his daily life on the fells: landmarks of border balladry, weather and wildlife, bankruptcy and lust, the struggle "between appetite and attainment" (in Basil Bunting's words). The result is, among other things, a record of making, its trials and loneliness, its flashes of humor and sudden grace. It culminates in "Lark & Merlin," one of Pickard's finest sequences. As Ange Mlinko has commented in Poetry magazine, Pickard is "a lyric poet in profound correspondence with his home in the North Pennines and with the erotic muse . . ."

Genres: Poetry

224 pages, Paperback

Published October 9, 2017

About the author

Tom Pickard, a Newcastle-born writer who left school at 14 and fell swiftly under the spell of American Beat poetry and poets, was not only present at the birth of the British Poetry Revival in 1965 but also is credited with leading the charge.

The author of 10 books of poetry and prose, Pickard will present a poetry@mit reading on Thursday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. in Room 6-120.

As a poet, Pickard is known for his poetic range, from erotic to political, from lyrically delicate to poignantly sad to bluntly expletive-driven. He was described as a "voice of finesse and powerful emotion" by The Guardian (UK). In the preface to "F***wind," former Beatle Paul McCartney wrote, "This collection of poems and songs soars over the fells, screeching truth, sex, humor, anger and love."

During the 1960s, Pickard ran bookstores and organized readings in England by well-known American beat poets including Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso. The British Revival is said to have grown out of these efforts, bringing wit, modernism, romance, excess and sexual expressiveness to poetry.

Pickard, 58, lives on the edge of Fiends Fell on the English-Scottish border. He has directed and produced a number of documentary films for British television and is currently writing a libretto for composer John Harle. "The Ballad Of Jamie Allan" is based on the 18th-century gypsy whose reputation as a great musician was matched by his reputation as an outlaw. from MIT NEWS http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange brew. Saw this highly recommended somewhere, and now I cannot remember where. Also was under the impression that it was a poetry collection. Turns out, it's more of a journal with some poetry planted here and there. Some poor Scotsman on the edge of some "fell" in his homeland. The journal covers a year, but nowhere near 365 days. Fifty, maybe?

Anyway, lots of white pages as the entries are, for the most part, short. As are the poems. Filled, too, with some Scottish words an American like me needs a dictionary for. And wind. Description of wind and cold.

[Mary Halpenny-killip]

Completely precious to me, this book--a gift. This is the latest from Tom Pickard, a poet, who Chris and I had the occasion from time to time to see when in the Northumbria/Cumbria region, who is responsible for bringing Basil Bunting (Briggsflatts) out of obscurity, thanks to the poetry series he and his then wife ran out of Morden Tower in Newcastle in the 60s (in a building built in 1290), and friend of Allen Ginsburg and Robert Creeley.

This is more or less a diary of most of one of the years Pickard lived in a space attached to the an end of the Hartside Top Cafe in the Pennines (highest cafe in the U.K.), visited by motorcyclists out for the long Sunday drive, and how Tom interacted with and observed nature; hankered for women; flipped burgers in the cafe for the waitresses to earn his keep; avoided debtor's prison; etc. His true love of the land comes through in his stories, poems, remembrances, and historical references, which are memorable and meaningful. I had to have a dictionary at my side the entire time, as just the right, and often times little used, word is chosen for the telling. Wonderful.