Pea Soup

by Christopher Reid

Pea

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Christopher Reid, FRSL is a Hong Kong-born British poet, essayist, cartoonist, and writer. He has been nominated twice for the Whitbread Awards in 1996 and in 1997. A contemporary of Martin Amis, he was educated at Exeter College, Oxford. He is one of the exponents of Martian poetry which employs unusual metaphors to render everyday experiences and objects unfamiliar. He has worked as poetry editor at Faber and Faber and Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Hull. In January 2010 he was awarded the 2009 Costa Book Award for A Scattering, written as a tribute to his late wife, the actress Lucinda Gane. The work won in the poetry category, and overall Best Book of the Year, becoming the first poet to take the overall prize since Seamus Heaney in 1999.

Reviews

[Gareth Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spent longer thinking about these poems than reading them. Elegantly crafted insights into the human condition even if, at times, the vocabulary sent me scuttling for my dictionary. At least when I unravelled the meanings, they proved to be just the right words. I have had this collection since 1983 and will no doubt continue reading it periodically.