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A Distant Englishness

a new poetry pamphlet by
John Whitehouse
​
with a foreword by Tamar Yoseloff


John Whitehouse is a poet of England going and gone, a clear-eyed lookout clinging to the broken mast of the present. Through his ever-changing lenses - now childhood pastel, now dazzling technicolor, now mournful monochrome - lost faces and landscapes brim into focus, charting the ebb and flow of English time. The poetry has a streak of the surreal, but always in the service of how memories evolve: misting, mistaken, yet slowly and surely revelatory. This is an evocative, haunting debut.
Glyn Maxwell 

A Distant Englishness is an impressive first collection of (mostly) sombre and enigmatic poems which deserve and repay several readings. It has been a pleasure to explore them and to discover new small details like the poet’s skilful planting of assertions which inhabit a twilight zone between the trite and the absurd. These statements are plausible but far from self-evident and they stimulate and engage the brain’s curiosity and eagerness to see how the thesis is developed or defended. One good example is ‘Carpenters make the best slaughterers’. If memory serves, I have elsewhere complimented Denis Nurkse and Robert Bringhurst on their use of similarly challenging lines to begin a poetic argument; so Whitehouse is in very good company.

Michael Bartholomew-Biggs, London Grip Review
THE COLLECTED POEMS OF ARNOLD BENNETT
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The decision to publish this first ever collection of Bennett’s poetry was driven by a feeling that there is a sense that his enthusiasm for verse as a form of expression should be explored. The outcome of his poetry writing may not be as polished and poetic as the best of his prose but there is a point in exploring that difference, and in understanding the motivation and drive to write poetry. What was it that attracted him to writing in verse?
This 160 page hardback edition contains all the poems known to have been written by Bennett and each poem has a detailed commentary. The book contains images of Bennett's original handwritten versions of many of the poems.  Available for pre-order now, the publication date is June 10th 2023. Priced at £20 plus p&p

Issue 14  of The Alchemy Spoon is available for pre-order
​ £7 plus p&p a  copy



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A Distant Englishness

£8.00

John Whitehouse's A Distant Englishness is an impressive first collection of (mostly) sombre and enigmatic poems which deserve and repay several readings. It has been a pleasure to explore them and to discover new small details like the poet’s skilful planting of assertions which inhabit a twilight zone between the trite and the absurd. 

Ordinary Magic

£7.00

Winning entry in the Alchemy Spoon Pamphlet Competition 2023

An innovative set of poems making skilful  use of Scots, honouring a mother who has 

‘ordinary magic’, which is the power and knowledge to bring up children in a hard, 

proud, confident, working class environment and despite everything spread happiness and comfort. 

Chris Hardy

A Box of Comfits

£7.00

The Alchemy Spoon Pamphlet Competition 2023 Anthology of short and long-listed poets.

Where the Trent Rises

£10.00

In Where The Trent Rises, John Lancaster takes the raw material of characters, events and locations from his native North Staffordshire and like a skilled potter moulds them into poetry which has an extraordinary power and form in his detailed observation of daily life. Beneath the surface of these well-crafted poems the reader will discover both lightness and in some cases a darker underlying sense of a world where injustice, abuse and prejudice are never far away.

Issue 13 of The Alchemy Spoon

£7.00

The 'Silence Issue'

Me and my Ego in Monochrome

£5.00

Only a few left!

A second collection of Oliver Leech's poems reproduced from his superb calligraphy and artwork

The Collected Poems of Arnold Bennett

£20.00

The first ever edition of the collected of poems of Arnold Bennett includes detailed commentaries on each poem. Published by Clayhanger Press this 160 page hardback edition is available for order now.

The Sad Vicissitudes of Life - signed copies

£18.00

Published by Olympia Publishers signed copies available here from author

On a spring day in 1858, a steamboat docks in Evansville, Indiana. One passenger, a paralysed and half-blind old man, dies shortly thereafter. This man is soon discovered to be the esteemed English doctor, John Pocock Holmes, who has travelled continents and lived countless lives only to die poor and alone far away from home. Born to a clergy family in rural Nottinghamshire, Dr John Pocock Holmes would spend much of his life traversing great distances and starting anew each time. This long journey to a tragic end began when a young Holmes crossed the Atlantic to work as a surgeon and fur trader for the Hudson's Bay Company. Upon returning to England, Holmes' career as a physician saw great successes and scandals, from pioneering advances in obstetrics to professional and legal disputes, but abruptly came to an end as Holmes entered the final and most enigmatic phase of his life.

The Alchemy Spoon Issue 12

£6.00

The 'Elements' Issue

The Alchemy Spoon Issue 11 'Colours'

£6.00

Issue 11 of the Alchemy Spoon - the 'colours' issue

PDF version of Issue 10 - pdf download

£3.00

issue 10 of the Alchemy Spoon as a pdf

The Alchemy Spoon Issue 10

£5.00

Sold out

The Friends Issue

Thresholds

£6.00

An anthology of poems by Red Door Poets

Sleeping Under Clouds

£10.00

Only a few left!

Sula Rubens’ subtly layered, haunting images and Sue Wallace-Shaddad’s clear and direct poems sit naturally together in a creative exchange that is rooted in honesty, compassion and tenderness. The people, animals and landscapes presented here – all the more affecting for the anonymity of their circumstances – reach out to us as readers and viewers, and draw us into the conversation. These pages are full of beauty, trust and the realities of life on the move and under duress, when kinship and hope are home and life-blood.

12 months subscription to The Alchemy Spoon to UK

£20.00

Take out a 12 month subscription and get 3 issues for £6 an issue with free postage within UK - saving 60p an issue

OVERSEAS 12 months subscription to The Alchemy Spoon

£24.00

Take out a 12 month overseas subscription and get 3 issues for £8 an issue with free delivery via Amazon - saving £3.00 an issue on postage - (Normal cost per issue including overseas postage = £11

A Centenary Compendium of the Jabez Stories 3rd Edition

£11.00

Sold out

The Centenary Compendium is a collection of stories in North Staffordshire Dialect which document life in a small mining village in the early part of the 20th Century.

The centenary compendium edition has been produced by the author’s sons to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Wilfred Bloor the author of the Jabez North Staffordshire dialect stories who wrote under the pen name of A Scott.

The book has been compiled from the original three Jabez books published in the 1970’s. The compendium contains many original photographs taken by the author which portray many of the events and scenes which he used as a background for his stories.

These photographs and his stories provide a unique social record of life in a North Staffordshire rural mining village in the period between the two World Wars.A collection of stories in North Staffordshire Dialect which document life in a small mining village in the early part of the 20th Century.

PDF version of Issue 8

£3.00

issue 8 of the Alchemy Spoon as a pdf

Stacking Winter Wood

£10.00

Stacking Winter Wood

is published on June 1st 2021

ISBN: 978-1-913329-43-3


Paperback 210 x 148mm


72 pages

Few voices in contemporary poetry can match the instinctive reverence of Roger Bloor’s. His poems contemplate moments, testing their fragility, hearing their whispers, knowing they will modulate to loss. In his historical poems and in his scrutiny of the present, Roger Bloor is the most delicate of elegiac writers, in all things sensitive, attentive, and rich in understanding.

                                                                                                Michael Hulse

Roger Bloor’s poetry is luminous and painterly. This stunning collection of poems honours his Staffordshire homeland, the forgotten and the marginalised juxtaposed with the poet’s gentle observations of intimacy, companionship and enduring love.

​                                            Vanessa Lampert

Roger Bloor’s poems are haunted by the realities of nature, historical stories and love. The poems start with ‘Solstice Song’ a poem of the very present caught in a yearning for the past. This theme, with different subjects, is continued throughout the book. Bloor uses precise, vivid language for all of his themes with subtle and powerful cadences. The reader is left with much to think about after the book has ben returned to the shelf.

                                             Wendy French

A Staffordshire Poetry Collection

£10.00

50 poems by contemporary Staffordshire poets

Aldgedeslegh

£4.50

‘Algedeslegh’ is the Saxon name for Audley, a small village in the North 

West of Staffordshire.

The poems address the ever-present spectre of Death who, residing at 

the parish bounds, readily accepts any invitation to visit, whether by 

the call of Lust, the pursuit of Power, the drive for Profit or the 

opportunity to renew acquaintance with his oldest friend.

The vocabulary and linguistic register shifts with each story, from the clotted proper names and nouns of the village’s Saxon origins to the local dialect used i n the last tale. The whole is both intricately woven and positively gem-like - think, for analogy, of King Alfred’s Jewel crossed with the Bayeux Tapestry! 

The concept and construction are enhanced by a very strong graphic

and typographic element — the author’s striking linocut illustrations along with a header and footer line in red, the footer of each page repeated in the header of the next,

 a variant and supplement to the metric pattern.


Bloor, in this slim volume, manages both to condense and write large 

scenes from 1,000 years of this ‘quiet’ village’s history — a poetic feat and 

absolute joy to read.


Catherine Burgass Lecturer in English Staffordshire University

Some houses are built without walls

£7.00

Only a few left!

Levy takes us on a journey through the dark and foreboding world of the Staffordshire mental asylum” Tamar Yoseloff, Poetry School London

 

“extraordinary poems…wrought, as if by magic or witchcraft, wondrous images of silent and silenced people” Femi Oyebode, University of Birmingham

 

Published January 7th 2022 by Staffordshire independent publisher Clayhanger Press, this poetry pamphlet is the result of a research project within the archives of the Staffordshire Records Office, focussing on the 19th century admission books, medical records, correspondence and photographs from Brentwood, Stafford and Cheddleton.

 

“a poignant and technically brilliant debut from a poet with grace and sensitivity” Tamar Yoseloff

 

Sara Levy is a graduate of the Newcastle MA Poetry programme. She performs her work regularly and is widely published and placed in National and International competitions. She has recorded a selection of poems from the book for inclusion on sound posts at the Staffordshire Archive exhibition ‘A Case For The Ordinary’, which will tour local venues from January and also feature her poems in the printed displays. She will be reading from the book at the launch event at the Museum of Cannock Chase on January 12th.

 

All religions are one

£10.00

A limited edition of 50 signed copies

hand printed on an Adana 8x5  and hand bound.

William Blake’s first attempt at combining words and images on the same plate were in his prints ‘All Religions are One’ 1788.

This book is a printmaker’s response to the concept of a spirituality innate in all people from birth expressed in the text of those plates.

The Blake text is in William Blake font, other text in Times Roman 12 point.

The images are from original monoprints by Roger Bloor transferred to photopolymer plates.

Front cover and pages 100% recycled paper

Fly leaf handmade Lotka paper from Nepalhand printed - hand bound limited edition of 50 signed by the artist

O beautiful, my country

£10.00

Sold out

This limited edition of 100 numbered copies is a hand printed, hand bound, A6 pamphlet, printed on a selection of specialised papers including handmade Lokta paper from Nepal and paper made with 50% recycled paper coffee cups. 


Clayhanger Press invited twelve poets to write an ekphrastic cinquain in response to the photographic  image of early 19th century industrial North Staffordshire entitled  

O Beautiful, my Country 

by local photographer William Blake circa 1910.

Dream Sequences

£7.00

Published by DreamWell Writing. A poetry pamphlet of a heroic crown of sonnets responding to a series of photographs - all the profits from the book go to Dyslexia Association of Staffordshire

Student Bodies 1968

£5.00

Diana Cant's debut pamphlet, a sequence describing a troubled student relationship amidst the decay and decline of the Potteries landscape.

Poetry Before Anything

£5.00

Only a few left!

The Newcastle Stanza Group Anthology 2020

Poems from the 53rd Parallel

£6.00

An anthology of poems from 9 Staffordshire poets

PDF download of issue 7 of The Alchemy Spoon

£3.00

Download a pdf copy of Issue 7 - the space issue - with poems, review, an interview with Caroline Bird and a personal view by Al Filreis from ModPo

The Alchemy Spoon Issue 7 Space

£5.00

Only a few left!

Issue 7 of The Alchemy Spoon

The Alchemy Spoon Issue 6

£5.00

Sold out

The 'Fixed Forms' issue with a reading by Michael Lavers

Issue 5 The Alchemy Spoon

£5.00

The 'Unthemed Issue' with a new poem by Glyn Maxwell

Quandaries by Oliver Leech

£9.99

Only a few left!

This brilliantly crafted set of poems is  reproduced in Oliver's original hand written calligraphy and illustrated with his delicate gouache artwork

Oblivion

£6.00

Only a few left!

Claire Hughes' debut pamphlet - the winner of the Clayhanger Press Pamphlet Competition 2021.

Poems for Medical Students

£7.50

Sold out

This anthology of poetry is for students embarking on a life in medicine.

Purchase a gift card for a Clayhanger Press product and give the pleasure of poetry

£5.00 - £20.00
Surprise someone special with a Gift Card! Gift Cards are delivered to the recipient by email and include instructions on how to redeem them at checkout. Our Gift Cards have no additional processing fees and never expire.
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Copies of Oblivion are  still available  direct from Claire Hughes
​or on Amazon