Synopsis "Woodview"
These are poems about memory, place, and growing up. These are poems about the things that happen and the people you meet along the way. Fleeting encounters on sleeper trains, becoming invisible in a Japanese mega-city, growing up in a house on a hill in the woods glimpsing the whole of London from the back bedroom window, and dreaming, and becoming entranced by the neon. But most of all, these are poems about the woods. The forest. The trees. Obscuring memories, perhaps, as well as the view. Lonely autumn walks through a leafy copse, imagining other places, other existences. This collection of poems from Robert Garnham is subtly autobiographical and layered in surprising ways which takes the reader beyond the present moment. 'The poems are a journey through memory, travel and the "everyday miracles" trying to find "meaning where there is none" and finding a home that "probably never existed". Very serious stuff but you're knocked off-balance by the humour which ranges from the ironic to the iconic, the snappy to the quirky, the satirical to self-deprecating, the wit and wordplay.' (Rodney Wood) 'Robert Garnham has an unerring eye for the bizarre, and a penchant for the outrageous statement, such as 'I was never interested in poetry'. He told the school careers adviser he wanted to work in a garden centre. The Pet Shop Boys were dismissed by his dad as 'whining bastards'. At the same time Robert developed a strange admiration for the US comedian Bob Newhart. Need I say more?' (Greg Freeman) 'Woodview is an evocative and sensitive collection of poems and prose that resonates with leaving childhood behind and searching for an identity. Robert is known for his wit and whimsical works, ever present here. Tenderly sitting beside these are the beautiful and honest poems in the section 'A Person' where Robert shows 'the workings of my heart'. Woodview is Robert at his very best'. (Becky Nuttall)
