The Cold Store

by Elisabeth Sennitt Clough

In this extraordinary collection, Sennitt Clough's third, we are introduced to the Cold Store, an elusive figure on the landscape of the Fens, a symbol of childhood, language, home, cathedral, as well as more specifically, a middle aged narcissist, a femme fatale, a local murderer's death mask... We shiver when it looms: what is the Cold Store? Is it a real place or does it exist only in our minds? These poems ring with cold, glancing sideways to consider female reindeer herders in Siberia, a captive Inuit fisherwoman in a children's picture book, the bitter taunts of a fellow (male) jogger, the ghostly afterlives of dead Facebook users. A haunting and mesmerising collection.

80 pages, Paperback

Published December 15, 2021

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Cold Store of the title is a brooding presence throughout this collection. It is a solid mass in the flat fen landscape, but it morphs through many other forms - a cathedral, a poet's wife a death mask.

This is is one of those collections I couldn't put down - and it left me wanting more!