THUNDER ALLEY

MARK WARD

Mark Ward’s debut collection Thunder Alley is a semi-autobiographical account of the diversity and divisions within his hometown of Blackburn. 

Named after a former town-centre street, Thunder Alley is a remarkable account of a contemporary Blackburn and its people. This is a place where, in the author’s hands, even the mundane seems extraordinary, from the disabled veteran Mr Brown who escapes into a jigsaw: the Polish Barber, unable to forget; to the genial tramp who simply vanished. The language is fresh and immediate; the poems are lucid and by turns, harrowing, stark, playful and wise. It is Blackburn, but you could be anywhere. 

Buy Mark Ward’s Thunder Alley and you won’t be disappointed. These drawn from life poems are sharply written, deftly observed and Shot with humour. What more could you possibly want?
                                                                                  John Hartley Williams 

This is the world as we know it, or think we know it: the focus is intense And compelling, but always eloquent and lyrical. The narratives are full of Unsettling detail, edgy and profound, but compassion underpins everything. This is a moving collection, full of wisdom and insights, beautifully crafted, It holds a mirror up to the world and says: look, this is who we are.

                                                                                  Neil Rollinson 

You could say Ward writes a Bach-like poem: it seeks for purity of expression. Its leathery language wants to force out the personal, the dramatic so that A near purity of expression allows them their place outside of the poem.

                                                                                           Alan Dent

 

 Paperback 6" x 9" 65 pages  ISBN  978-1-326-07316-9 Published November 2014

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