Search results for ""author ros barber""

April is angry.Only nineteen, she is an elective mute, accused of a religiously motivated atrocity. Dr Finlay Logan is broken. A borderline-suicidal psychologist still reeling from his daughter’s death, he must assess April’s sanity in a world where – ten years after the death of Richard Dawkins – moves have been made to classify religious belief as a form of mental illness. Both April and Finlay struggle to understand what has happened to them, sharing secrets, silence and an inability to deal with the world around them. Gently unpicking the lives of these two broken characters, Barber offers a psychologically acute and deeply moving exploration of grief. An extraordinary novel from one of the brightest rising stars in fiction.

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Ros Barber's second book forms a meditation on human loss; it is a more personal and autobiographical collection than her first, described by Neil Rollinson as 'an honest, unflinching and hugely satisfying debut'. Sarah Law described her as 'a 'traditional' contemporary poet along the lines of Larkin' and it is Barber's sure hand with rhyme and meter that gives the hard material of these poems (both personal losses and those experienced through others) their steady focus and makes them so readable. Throughout, the poetry remains strong, thoughtful and refreshing.

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A striking performer of her own poems, Ros Barber has the gift of recreating her voice - and the voices of others - on the page. The poems in this debut collection demonstrate her wide range in form and subject and her skill in highlighting the extraordinary within the commonplace. With their leavening of dark humour and their formal dexterity, her poems charm, entertain and provoke.

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*WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE*'Sharp, concise, stunningly visual' Sunday TimesOn 30th May, 1593, a celebrated young playwright was killed in a tavern brawl in London. That, at least, was the official version. Now Christopher Marlowe reveals the truth: that his 'death' was an elaborate ruse to avoid being convicted of heresy; that he was spirited across the Channel to live on in lonely exile; that he continued to write plays and poetry, hiding behind the name of a colourless man from Stratford - one William Shakespeare. With the grip of a thriller and the emotional force of a sonnet, this remarkable novel in verse gives voice to a man who was brilliant, passionate and mercurial. Memoir, love letter, confession, settling of accounts and a cry for recognition as the creator of some of the most sublime works in the English language, The Marlowe Papers brings Christopher Marlowe and his era to vivid life. 'The best book I've read for a long time. Truly innovative, truly original, and a powerful poetic journey to another truth' Benjamin Zephaniah'Rich and charmingly playful' Sunday Telegraph

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