Good news. Major Welsh poet Owen Sheers - also a novelist and TV personality - and a UEA alumni - sees the film adaptation of his book Resistance open this weekend across the UK. For fans of Brighton Rock, this will be another period treat with that pic's star, Andrea Riseborough (great in glasses). Further, anyone who loves hypotheticals like what if the Nazis took over Wales... well - this is one to see. I myself can't wait.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
Comments
Owen Sheers wrote the script of 'The Passion' - a 72 hour extravaganza that was staged in Port Talbot earlier this year involving the entire town. Michael Sheen was apparently brilliant in the leading role. Although I was unable to attend for some reason, it garnered glowing reviews in the Guardian and elsewhere.
Best wishes from Simon