Clive Wilmer’s new sequence of prose poems that deals with the powerful place of memory and vivid childhood experiences in the blessed landscape of post-war South East London, specifically the author’s family home in Tooting Bec. The sequence favourably brings to mind Geoffrey Hill’s ‘Mercian Hymns’ and further explores Wilmer’s fascination with the notion of building an earthly paradise. A cast of characters from Louis Armstrong to teachers such as Miss Inkpen populate the hiding places of Wilmer’s powers.
“Clive Wilmer’s beautifully poised writing never runs the danger of forfeiting its tone of recognition: the past’s importance is registered precisely because it is the past.”
Ian Brinton