A Supermarket Love Story

by John Osborne

Illustrations by Katie Pope, published by Go Faster Stripe.

The new poetry collection by John Osborne about supermarkets and the people who use them. We meet two paramedics in the crisps aisle, a butcher on the meat counter who is considering vegetarianism, love blooms as two people on their own with baskets say hi to each other. We join staff with untucked shirts sitting on kick stools stacking shelves and find that every aisle really does tell a different story.

John Osborne writes poems, books and stories. His first theatre show John Peel’s Shed received five-star reviews from The Independent and The Scotsman. He has written and performed six half-hour storytelling shows for Radio 4 and his poems have been broadcast on Radio 1, Radio 3, Radio 4, XFM and BBC 6Music. In 2015 After Hours, the sitcom he created with Molly Naylor was broadcast on Sky 1, directed by Craig Cash and starring Jaime Winstone and Ardal O’Hanlon.

'A lovely, engaging writer finding the joyous in the everyday.'
- Stuart Maconie

'His work has a winning gentleness, a seductive voice that draws you in, ensnares you and captivates you.'
- Ian McMillan

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 2021

About the author

People best know British playwright John James Osborne, member of the Angry Young Men, for his play Look Back in Anger (1956); vigorous social protest characterizes works of this group of English writers of the 1950s.

This screenwriter acted and criticized the Establishment. The stunning success of Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre. In a productive life of more than four decades, Osborne explored many themes and genres, writing for stage, film and television. His extravagant and iconoclastic personal life flourished. He notoriously used language of the ornate violence on behalf of the political causes that he supported and against his own family, including his wives and children, who nevertheless often gave as good as they got.

He came onto the theatrical scene at a time when British acting enjoyed a golden age, but most great plays came from the United States and France. The complexities of the postwar period blinded British plays. In the post-imperial age, Osborne of the writers first addressed purpose of Britain. He first questioned the point of the monarchy on a prominent public stage. During his peak from 1956 to 1966, he helped to make contempt an acceptable and then even cliched onstage emotion, argued for the cleansing wisdom of bad behavior and bad taste, and combined unsparing truthfulness with devastating wit.

Reviews

[Diana Jaques · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Supermarket Love Story by John Osborne is a collection of poems set in a supermarket, turning the mundane into a funny, relatable, and realistic set of poems.

When I came across this book, it reminded me of my own poem 'Date night at Tesco' from the book: A Poetry collection by Diana Jaques. Both my own poem and this entire collection by Osborne take something so simple from our daily lives and romanticises the mundane.

With all comical elements of the concept and the work itself aside, some of these poem open your eyes, and remind you of the little struggles of life too, from foodbanks to job situations and even the hushed melancholy of changing times.

Supermarkets are the hub of life, weather its a big shop, small shop, just a few bits, or even a pop in to look around, a supermarket is the universal check in point where time stands still, wheels roll across smooth floors, bright lights shine and chatter is inescapable.

My copy of A Supermarket Love Story is illustrated by Katie Pope from Glasgow. Her work accompanies the poems of Osborne and brings a warmth and nostalgic feel to the story telling flow.
Towards the back of the book there is a section that expresses how both the author and illustrator used to work in Supermarkets many years prior to their careers. I found this to give the whole book an almost wholesome quality in which made me smile.

This collection is perfect for people who are looking for the hidden prose in the day to day. Words that give a new perspective to the rut of life.

Personal Favourites:
The milk aisle
Tins of things
Food banks
Shelf staking again
The cereal aisle
Two paramedics in the crisp aisle

[Matilda Smart · Rating 2 out of 5]

Has a really interesting overarching theme but unfortunately I found the poetry quite generalised and mawkish. I’ve always enjoyed character-led stories about the beauty in mundanity, but a lot of the poems felt like they were trying to draw emotional reactions from you without providing any of the detail to elicit that. There are are a few good lines but alot kind of just read like very simple storytelling mixed in with mushy Pinterest quotes. Osborne definitely has the imagination to come up with the ideas for these stories, if the poems with the most interesting characters or concepts (e.g. I think the butcher and the vicar is a really good one) were developed into short stories under the umbrella of ‘people in supermarkets’ I think that could be really interesting.

Also the illustrations were stunning. Gotta love a poetry collection with beautiful pictures.

[Nina Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re looking for great big bellowing crashing poems that shoot you down - this book is not it. But, if you’re looking for poems that remind you of the joy in the everyday, the romance in the ordinary, poems that brush past you slowly leaving the faintest shiver like a hand reaching for the same tin of beans - then look no further.

I feel inspired to go to my local and drink it in.
Sit in the salon and lather myself in its stories.
Go to the tip and build movements of the mess.

[Paul Crump · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though the book is small in stature I really enjoyed the poetry. Full of sentiment it is exactly how I would like to write.

[James Kinsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not so taken by the illustrations, if I'm honest (sorry) - but that's a personal taste thing, no reflection on their quality.
The poems are delightful though, encapsulates the beauty of the everyday.