In Shelling Peas with My Grandmother in the Gorgiolands Sarah Wimbush journeys through myth and memory with poetry rooted in Yorkshire. From fireside tales of Romany Gypsies and Travellers, through pit villages and the haunt of The Miners' Strike, to the subliminal of the everyday - including poems about typists, pencil sharpeners and learning to drive in a Ford Capri. This highly accomplished debut collection explores what it means to belong, what it means to be on the margins. This is poetry written in praise of family and community and those qualities which make us human: love, language and, most of all, resilience. Sarah Wimbush is a Leeds poet who hails from Doncaster. She has published two pamphlets, Bloodlines (2020), winner of the Mslexia/PBS Poetry Pamphlet Competition 2019, which was also shortlisted in the Michael Marks Awards, and The Last Dinosaur in Doncaster (Smith|Doorstop, 2021), a winner of the Poetry Business Book and Pamphlet Competition in 2020. Shelling Peas with My Grandmother in the Gorgiolands is her first book-length collection.

About the Author
Sarah Wimbush is a Leeds poet who hails from Doncaster. Her debut poetry pamphlet, Bloodlines, won the Mslexia/PBS Poetry Pamphlet Competition 2019. It was published in 2020 by Seren and shortlisted in the Michael Marks Awards. In 2020 she was a winner in The Poetry Business Book and Pamphlet Competition with The Last Dinosaur in Doncaster, published by Smith|Doorstop in 2021. Her poems have appeared in Brittle Star, The Interpreter's House and Stand, among others, and have been highly placed in a number of single poem competitions, including 1st prize in the Mslexia, 2nd in the Ledbury and 3rd in The Plough. She is a member of York Stanza and Doncaster Read 2 Write, and received a Northern Writers' Award in 2019. Her first book-length collection, Shelling Peas with My Grandmother in the Gorgiolands, is published by Bloodaxe in 2022.

Reviews
There is a Romany saying, We are all one: all who are with us are ourselves: Sarah Wimbush's collection draws us into the world of Travellers with linguistic panache and delight. -- David Morley * on Bloodlines *
A vivid love poem to the changing landscape of South Yorkshire and its residents. The poet suggests the teeming life of the place which langugage which rolls along on its own lively music and images that sing. -- Imtiaz Dharker * on The Last Dinosaur in Doncaster *
The writing felt local and universal like much good writing does, saying new things about old subjects like The Miner's Strike and growing up, and there was a powerful anger in the poems that didn't overwhelm them but fuelled the ordinary. -- Ian McMillan * on The Last Dinosaur in Doncaster *
A thrilling debut that kept me outdoors in the grassy world of communal lives. I love the formal dazzle and linguistic dare that spoke of defiance, survival and utter joy. -- Daljit Nagra * on Bloodlines *



Book Information
ISBN 9781780376165
Author Sarah Wimbush
Format Paperback
Page Count 80
Imprint Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Publisher Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 8mm