A Family Behind Glass
by Matthew Hedley Stoppard
'I have signed my tenancy with manhood ... but I’ll ribbet before I croak.'
A Family Behind Glass is the first collection of poetry by Matthew Hedley Stoppard, painting a vivid picture of a 1990s childhood (complete with miniature waistcoats and rusting swing-sets), then taking us through to the present-day realities of the poet's life as a father to his own family.
With a particularly English literary sensibility, every line crackles with half-forgotten but instantly recognisable characters, images and locations, somehow evoking a nostalgia for the here-and-now - and everything that is 'behind glass', just beyond our reach.
“Uses inventive language and striking imagery ... one of the most arresting poetry collections of the year.”
— John Irving Clarke, The Guardian
“Matthew Hedley Stoppard's poetic voice is truly original and always compelling … He weaves the everyday into wonderfully unravelling works of art. Rarely is humour deployed to tell so much truth.”
— James Nash
“Inventive, acutely observed and often searingly comic ... his subjects are described with a linguistic brio of fizzing lines and images. Buy the collection immediately.”
— Mike Di Placido
Edition: Paperback
Date Published: 2013-05-15
ISBN: 9781908853202
Catalogue Number: VP0044
Number of Pages: 48
Cover design by Jamie McGarry
Cover photograph by Victoria Smith
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