{"product_id":"how-to-build-a-city-9781844718849","title":"How To Build A City","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHow To Build A City\u003c\/em\u003e is the Crashaw Prize-winning debut collection of poetry by Tom Chivers. It is a poetic interrogation of the twenty-first century urban experience, drawing on the history, culture, society and topography of London. Chivers takes his cue from radical writers such as Iain Sinclair and Barry MacSweeney to create an impressionist poetry, marked by playful riddling, found texts and unusual juxtapositions. How To Build A City is peopled by ghosts of London’s past as well as the distinctly modern spectres of spam email, international terrorism and the credit crunch.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe title piece is a choppy, sardonic investigation of contemporary East London, a travelogue that never really leaves Liverpool Street Station. Some of the poems are personal accounts of love and loss, including ‘Thom, C \u0026amp; I’, a long sequence of lyrical fragments cut from a diary written by the poet’s mother. Other poems take the reader away from the city to the fenlands of Medieval East Anglia, apple-heavy Himalayan gardens and the bleak uplands of Northern England.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow To Build A City captures the mood of a fluctuating, unstable metropolis that is continually coming to terms with multiple and conflicting identities. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eDark London history, dredged and interrogated, spits and fizzes with corrosive wit. Language-receipts sustain the necessary illusion. IT MATTERS. It matters: the weight and pace of delivery, the balance of breath. Tom Chivers understands the risks he risks, the play in a taught rope. 'I'll ghost-write, if you ask.\u003c\/p\u003e -- Iain Sinclair\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eTom Chivers has a striking, individual voice and a powerful one.\u003c\/p\u003e -- Patricia Prime * NHI Review *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eTom Chivers’ sardonic wit created a sense of a London which was always out to crap on his shoulder.\u003c\/p\u003e -- George Ttoouli * Gists \u0026amp; Piths *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePart I\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTube\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThis is yogic\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCitizen\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRush Hour\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTina is a Rottweiler\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSeven Varieties of Knot\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eStopping Doctor Syntax\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eQueer Things in Egypt\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Coder\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYour Name Has Been Randomly Selected\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBig Skies over Docklands\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Trial of Margery\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eShaikh and the Fruit Pickle\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eInvasion\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA Tourist’s Guide to the East End\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHasty Excise\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFifteen Days\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHow To Build A City\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePart II\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSnapshot\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIconic\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMarpha\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNewborn\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGuthlac\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Voyages of Ottar and Wulfstan\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOn Kinder Scout\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eShatton, Kinder\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWorking in Stone\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePostmark Tullamore\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePhotographs\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eParamnesiac\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThom, C and I\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Salt Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51771556823383,"sku":"9781844718849","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781844718849.jpg?v=1758728258","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/how-to-build-a-city-9781844718849","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}