The Malarkey
by Helen Dunmore
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The malarkey is over in the back of the car - As soon as you turn your back, time slips. The humdrum present has become the precious, irrecoverable past. The ways in which the present longs for the past, questions it, tries to get in touch with it and stretches the power of memory to its limits, are central to this new collection by Helen Dunmore. Joseph Severn recalls Keats hurling a bad dinner out onto the steps of the Piazza di Spagna; the glamour of John Donne's portrait 'taken in show more shadows' seduces a new generation; the dead assert their right to walk through the imaginations of the living - These are poems and stories of loss and extraordinary rediscovery. The Malarkey is Helen Dunmore's first poetry book since Glad of These Times (2007) and Out of the Blue: Poems 1975-2001 (2001), a comprehensive selection drawing on seven previous collections. It brings together poems of great lyricism, feeling and artistry. show lessTags
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Helen Dunmore's first poetry collection since 2007. If there's a theme running though these poems, and two prose pieces (about poets John Donne & John Keats), it would be lost time, the realization of how important a moment, a person, was only afterwards.
The title poem has someone searching for their car in a car park, missing the noise their children once made, which had became their way of locating the car.
Most of these poems are brief and intense, but there is also humour in poems like 'The Captainess of Laundry' and observational pieces on ladybirds or people seen from a basement or outside a bank.
Helen Dunmore has won numerous awards for both her poetry and her many novels. Prolific writer; remarkable talent.
The title poem has someone searching for their car in a car park, missing the noise their children once made, which had became their way of locating the car.
Most of these poems are brief and intense, but there is also humour in poems like 'The Captainess of Laundry' and observational pieces on ladybirds or people seen from a basement or outside a bank.
Helen Dunmore has won numerous awards for both her poetry and her many novels. Prolific writer; remarkable talent.
really enjoyed the first half, struggled to read through the whole collection though. something to read very slowly.
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178 works; 71 members
Author Information
70+ Works 8,492 Members
Helen Dunmore was born in Beverley, England on December 12, 1952. She received a degree in English from the University of York in 1973. She taught English in Finland before moving to Bristol, England, where she taught literature and creative writing. She was a poet, novelist, and children's author. Her collections of poetry include The Apple Fall, show more The Raw Garden, and Inside the Wave. Her books include Talking to the Dead, Your Blue-Eyed Boy, House of Orphans, The Greatcoat, The Siege, The Betrayal, The Lie, and Birdcage Walk. She won the McKitterick Prize for debut novelists in 1994 for Zennor in Darkness, the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction in 1996 for A Spell of Winter, and the Costa Award for Poetry in 2017 for Inside the Wave. She died of cancer on June 5, 2017 at the age of 64. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Malarkey
- People/Characters
- Joseph Severn
- First words
- Why did you tell them to be quiet
And sit up straight until you came back? - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Even if the boat never sets sail
We can be content,
and I won't look at your face
or write another word.
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- Members
- 22
- Popularity
- 1,186,026
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.33)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 2
- ASINs
- 1
