Deluge by Charlotte Ansell, as with her previous work, displays an unerring emotional honesty. Confronting displacement, ageing, therapy, family, as well as social shifts like gentrification, Charlotte draws perspective from the community she lives in and distils it into the stunning exhortations and vignettes that make up this collection. Having moved from boat moorings in London to boat moorings in Sheffield, Deluge nods to the change with poems such as Queen of the North, which opens with "Oh my God Sheffield why/ do you always leave your coat at home?" and Dear Canal, a private note to the waters "still harbouring/ knives, forks and spoons." In poems like Jennie, Deluge and the heartbreaking Emptied, both Charlotte's empathetic range and formal restraint are in evidence, confirming a unique ability to pick at the most complex of the heart's dilemmas with clear language and refreshing directness.

A PBS Winter 2019 Recommendation

About the Author
Charlotte Ansell is the author of the poetry collections 'you were for the poem' and 'After Rain'. A dedicated boat-dweller, her poems have appeared in Poetry Review, Mslexia, Now Then, Butcher's Dog, Prole, Algebra of Owls and various book-length anthologies. She won the Red Shed Open Poetry Competition and was one of six finalists in the BBC Write Science competition in 2015. Charlotte recently left Yorkshire via the North Sea to moor up on the Medway and 'Deluge', her third poetry collection, partly reflects her close relationship to water.


Book Information
ISBN 9781905233557
Author Charlotte Ansell
Format Paperback
Page Count 130
Imprint Flipped Eye Publishing Limited
Publisher Flipped Eye Publishing Limited