Praise for the prose poem

Literature's most flexible form........................

the prose poem — “literature’s most flexible form” — appears to be having something of a resurgence in 2019: Jeremy Noel-Tod’s “essential” anthology The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem garnered a string of positive reviews across the weekend’s press. The Daily Telegraph’s Tim Smith-Laing described the collection as “a wonderful alternative history of modern poetry”, declaring “it is hard to know how it could possibly be bettered”. The Guardian’s Kate Kellaway was similarly enthusiastic — “by the end, my copy of the book was bristling with bookmarks” — helping the title land an impressive 4.25 average weighted BIM score. Another non-fiction title favoured by the critics is Jonathan Conlin’s “excellent” biography of “the world’s richest man” Calouste Gulbenkian, Mr Five Per Cent. The Times’ Gerard DeGroot was impressed by Conlin’s “remarkable” ability to unravel the elusive figure, notably “not an easy subject”, concluding that “the oil tycoon’s ruthless pursuit of wealth is a lesson in the pathology of greed”. Finally, the eagerly anticipated short story from iconic writer Sylvia Plath, Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom, has hit the shelves. Written in 1952, with Plath on the brink of the turbulent year she would go on to document in The Bell Jar, Mary Ventura… is “a masterly ratcheting up of tension over 40 pages”. There is “plenty to admire”, says the Sunday Times’ Leaf Arbuthnot, describing the title as “essential reading for diehard fans”.   Update - The Costa Book Awards category winners have announced - follow the link for the full details.  By Francesca Pym  "Literature's L Praise for the prose poem