Spoon Rebellion:

The title poem “Spoon Rebellion” celebrates the impulse to rise up and find small but significant freedoms, for spoons to dance and be set free, to write a way through and beyond the legacy of our parents. In this collection we see the wish to stop work, to go for a walk, to enjoy fresh air and swimming, amongst glimpses of small towns in Brexit Britain. Comic, sharp-eyed and reflective, seventeenth century herbal medicine attempts to heal the country, elegy-hymns are sung to Sheffield’s famous now-no-longer cooling towers and the Erewash Canal. Moments of satire, moments of sadness and righteous anger as Shakespeare receives evaluation forms, as precarious plate spinners from Bulgaria visit Clay Cross, Derbyshire, these poems combine warmth, looking sideways, and illuminating and commemorating what happens when you don’t want to work, or when industry and work are gone.

“Spoon Rebellion is a lovely pamphlet of work. Well-crafted, accessible and strong imagery. Among my favourites are The Cooling Towers Farewell - I love the descriptions, and the poem places those icons in historical and economic context. A very strong collection.” Peter Mortimer, Editor, Iron Press

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Footsteps and Fuddles: No Map but the Sky book by Matt Black

Footsteps and Fuddles: No Map but the Sky

Including 12 cartoons by Jackie Prachek, that wink a comic eye at the joys and challenges of the writing journey, here are 60 new poems written by Matt Black during his tenure as Derbyshire Poet Laureate, celebrating the people and history of Derbyshire...

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Goblin in The Fridge by Matt Black

Goblin in The Fridge

Grumpy unicorns, rapping grannies, Saturday Dads, sun-filled pizzas, this wonderful collection is always ready to surprise you. Poems of many moods, fun-filled and serious too, with fabulous illustrations by 8 artists, plus quizzes, games, mystery prizes and ideas for writing your own poems...

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Tales from the Leaking Boot by Matt Black

Tales from the Leaking Boot

These four Travel Journals of wide-eyed, sharp and humorous haiku take us; through the streets of Austin, Texas; on a road trip through philosophy, cheese and the unlikely role of Mister Bean in Germany: into the lemon groves, fish markets and Vodaphone ring-tones of Turkey...

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The Nonsense Olympics by Matt Black

The Nonsense Olympics

Inspired by the coincidence of Edward’s Lear bicentenary falling on the year when London hosted the Olympics, this nonsense inspired celebration of sport includes the backwards race, high-jumping camels, the ancient Worcestershire sport of Shniblobs, how to be good at sports by relaxing, pig tig etc...

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The Owl and the Pussy-cat by Matt Black

The Owl and the Pussy-cat

Have you ever wondered why the Owl and the Pussy-cat set sail in their legendary pea-green boat? What were they leaving behind? And did they dance by the light of the moon for ever? This new edition of Lear’s most famous nonsense poem is set between a new Prequel and Sequel by Matt Black exploring what might have led up to, and resulted from, the famous wedding on the sand...

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Spoon Rebellion by Matt Black

Spoon Rebellion

The title poem “Spoon Rebellion” celebrates the impulse to rise up and find small but significant freedoms, for spoons to dance and be set free, to write a way through and beyond the legacy of our parents. In this collection we see the wish to stop work, to go for a walk, to enjoy fresh air and swimming, amongst glimpses of small towns in Brexit Britain...

Read MoreAnd Buy the Book
Swimmer by Matt Black

Swimmer

Swimmer contains poems written over 10 years, including a sequence of love poems - “Careless” (listen here), and “Granny Power and Cocoa”, a sequence about Matt’s fictional grumpy, rebellious and ever-resourceful grandparents, Grandma and Grandpa ...

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Plot 161 by Matt Black

Plot 161

Plot 161 is a wild, mad, beautiful urban tragicomedy written in a form somewhere between fiction and prose-poetry, all happening in and around the allotment of the title, with visits to Cabbage World and Safeways’ thrown in. With specially commissioned woodcuts by Leora Brook...

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