Seraphim at Sarov, the epic poem in the last section, is clearly well constructed, and might be of interest to some, but as a fan of all things modern, and the here and now, it just didn’t really hold my attention.


I kind of wondered why this book was finally being issued – clearly some of the poems are poems that McGibbon has had for some time – there is one about the eclipse in 1999, and from what I could gather, many of the poems were written some time ago. It almost feels that Mulfran is the one publisher that has finally accepted the work, which is not a good sign.


The major criticism I would have of all three of these Mulfran books is their look and feel. The covers, frankly, are awful. Each one has apparently been “designed”, but they all look incredibly drab, with the title and name of each poet in a large, ordinary font, above a pretty dull picture. The trend these days is for the picture to take up the whole of the cover, and Mulfran would be better to consider doing this, I think, or to at least give some more consideration to the way each cover looks.


As well as that, the paper used for the inside feels like it’s pretty low quality – if you’re going to charge £7.95 for a book,


I think spending a few extra pennies on better quality paper makes


economic sense – people will much prefer to buy a book that looks good and feels nice to the touch. The rough paper also meant that the photo illustrations in Lynda Nash’s book look far worse than they might have done on better quality paper.


Anyway, as a result of all this, Mulfran will have to rely on the old adage that the writing will speak for itself. While there were some pieces of interest in all three books, I could only fully recommend Maureen Jivani’s book for the writing alone, leaving aside the poor design.


On the positive side, it’s great to see a new poetry publisher emerging in Cardiff, and I wish Mulfran all the best.


SQUARE RATINGS


55% Ashes of a Valleys Childhood


72% Insensible Heart 28


52% The Consolations


75% American Means


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