Small World

Price Richard

"Small World" tells a story of the changing relationship between a father and his two daughters, one severely disabled, a "mermaid in a wheelchair", the other discovering the difference of her elder sister, the "moon" to her "earth". Each succeeding poem gathers further telling detail as the father listens and observes with affection and surprise the strange world they inhabit, gradually reflecting on his own contrasting childhood. Finally, the book ends with a shock experience that brings all that has gone before into sharp focus.

About the Author

Richard Price was born in 1966 and grew up in Scotland. He trained as a journalist at Napier College, Edinburgh, before studying English at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. The youngest of the Informationist group of poets, he was a founder of the magazines associated with them, "Gairfish and Southfields". He is also the co-founder of Vennel Press, the imprint which brought many of the earlier Informationist collections to a wider audience. He is now Head of Content and Research Strategy at the British Library, London.

Reviews

"A superb first line, 'No colours can mean more than Lego's' ('Delicate greenery'), leads on to an amazing arc of narrative and imagery and richness. There's playground slang and prejudice. And suddenly a pared-down, lyric directness..." – Tony Williams, Magma

"...when you come to such energy combined with impressive inventiveness and lyricism, it is rather hard to pass on by [...] the humour, the wittiness [are] there throughout, as is a boldness of utterance [...] Here, however sorrowful the story, I hope other readers too will feel the energy of language in the making" – Caroline Clark, Eyewear

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