Unpublished Stevie Smith: not waving but drawing

Stevie Smith always wanted her drawings to accompany her poetry, yet most were omitted from posthumous editions. As a new collection brings them together, we present four previously unpublished poems alongside her illustrations

Will May

Saturday 19 September 2015  - The Guardian

Who or what is Stevie Smith, Ogden Nash once pondered. The poet and novelist who slinked the suburbs of north London has often proved a riddle. Her most famous poem, “Not Waving but Drowning”, turns on a fatal misunderstanding, but she is good at pulling the wool over our eyes. She once characterised writers as shrewd, and the apparently careless lollop of her lines belies an astute technician.
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