Two Girls and a Beehive offers a minutely observed exploration in poetry of the life and work of Stanley Spencer and his two wives, Hilda Carline and Patricia Preece, engaging readers with the particular unease that must trouble any follower of Spencer's paintings, with their human dramas and contradictory beatitudes. 'Nothing less than a masterpiece of ekphrasis, this is a work of extraordinary unity, daring and emotional breadth... These poems reconfigure Spencer's tawny pigments, scenes of warfare and bohemian domesticity, couplings in low-ceilinged rooms, flowered prints, the strange militancy of his Christian faith and, above all, the annihilation of a woman artist on the altars of desire, betrayal and art. I was smitten from the first page to the last.' ~ ANNIE FREUD 'A marvellous act of dual authorship by two poets at the top of their game. Something magical happens in these pages. Works of visual power exchange speech with poems written in response to them. Biographical poems thoroughly inhabit and re-imagine the minds of Stanley and Hilda Spencer. The book is an act of what Dante called visible speaking (esto visible parlare): visual practice takes on a refreshed verbal life; the landscapes of paintings rise clear in the mind's eye; and their subjects speak newly to the mind's ear.' ~ DAVID MORLEY 'An original and impressive collection, varied yet unified.' ~ ANTHONY THWAITE

About the Author
GRAHAM BURCHELL has lived and worked in Zambia, Saudi Arabia, Tenerife, Mexico, France, Chile and the United States. He was a teacher from 1976 to 2003, with a B.Ed. in Art and Education. He became a full-time writer in 2004 and gained an M.A. in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University in 2010. His poetry has appeared in most of the major UK poetry magazines and he has won, been placed or commended in many competitions, including 1st prize in the Red Shed Poetry Competition, 2018, 3rd place in Bridport 2017, runner-up in the 2016 BBC Proms poetry competition, 1st prize in the National Stanza Competition 2015 and 2012 Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year. He was a Hawthornden fellow 2013. Now living in South Devon, he is active in the Devon poetry scene, chairperson of Moor Poets and one of the team running the Teignmouth Poetry Festival. www.gburchell.com ROSIE JACKSON has a first-class degree in English & Comparative Literature from the University of Warwick, a D. Phil. from York, and has taught in many educational settings, including the University of East Anglia, Nottingham Trent, Bristol UWE, Skyros Writers' Lab, Cortijo Romero, and the Open College of the Arts. Her poetry is published in Acumen, Ambit, Domestic Cherry, Frogmore Papers, High Window, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Salzburg Review, Scintilla, Tears in the Fence, The Interpreter's House, and other journals and anthologies, has been set for GCSE and used for a sculpture by Andrew Whittle in the grounds of a Dorchester hospital. She was a Hawthornden fellow 2017. Awards include 1st prize at Wells 2018, 2nd prize at Torbay 2018, 1st prize in the Stanley Spencer Poetry Competition 2017. Rosie lives in Frome, Somerset, where she teaches creative writing workshops. www.rosiejackson.org.uk


Book Information
ISBN 9781909747593
Author Graham Burchell
Format Paperback
Page Count 84
Imprint Two Rivers Press
Publisher Two Rivers Press