£7 plus £3 p.and p. ISBN: 978-1-912710-24-9

In September 1939, W. H. Auden wrote these words:

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie

80 years later, another politically conscious and technically skilful poet rises to the challenge of ‘unfolding the lie’, as Christopher Norris’s eloquent and combative voice rings out, as sharp and satirical as Auden. In the light of the forthcoming general election, a more topical collection of politically committed poetry would be hard to imagine.

The author of The Trouble with Monsters (Culture Matters, 2019) writes poems based on topical events which broaden out to reveal, lampoon and lament the underlying problems of capitalist society. Conflicts relating to gender, inequality, migration, ethnic difference, culture wars and generational barriers are all unearthed and firmly linked to the fundamental class differences which divide capitalist societies.

A sequence of poems on the cultural and political theories of T. W. Adorno, which have done so much to uncover the horrors of late capitalist culture, illuminate the poems and cartoons that engage with the realities of material existence, in family life, workplaces, sports activities and other sites of class division, exploitation and oppression.

Christopher Norris’s incisive voice is perfectly complemented by Martin Gollan’s insightful drawings. Collaged fragments of texts and images not only illustrate the argument of the poems but also carry their own distinctly graphic message in a vivid counterpoint to the text, graphically condensing the satirical thrust of the poems.