1) I have no great knowledge of, nor connection with, North East England; and

2) I really don’t know much about appreciating and reviewing poetry.

As it turns out, the first one probably doesn’t matter too much for reviewing purpose; but the second one might, as about one third of ‘Magnetic North’ consists of poems. So I ask that you take the following as the somewhat eccentric survey that it is, rather than as any attempt to provide a representative sample.

The first section of ‘Magnetic North’ contains pieces inspired by visits to Moscow and Sofia. A bald summary of Andrew Crumey’s ‘An Expedition to the Taiga’ does not make the story sound too inspiring – on his way to a conference, an academic is regaled with tales of the taiga by his driver – but there is much more to it than that: the tale touches on the conflict between ‘civilization’ and ‘wilderness’, the contradictions we can have in our own personalities, even the question of what is and isn’t real. There are also poems in this section like the wonderfully evocative ‘Going’ and ‘How I Learned to Sing’ by Mark Robinson.

In the section titled ‘Small Things’, I was particularly struck by Fiona Ritchie Walker’s two poems, where she spins gold from the most unlikely sources: public toilets and dust mites. And in ‘Small Things in the Cupboard of Long Relationships’, Julia Darling rummages poignantly through a couple’s random bits and pieces. In ‘Rural Mischief’, John Murray contributes ‘The Warlick’, an amusing tale of a prankster – but with a sting in the tale provided by the foot and mouth crisis. And, in the selection of winter poems, ‘Gran’s Diary’ by Anna Woodford comments eloquently on how you just never know when life will…

Then come a set of works inspired by songs, such as ‘The Road and Miles to Dundee’ by Val McDermid, which chronicles the relationship between a girl and her father in four sharply observed episodes. Similarly effective is Chrissie Glazebrook’s ‘The Girl with Earthworms in Her Mouth’, the story of two friends whose lives go in rather different directions.

The stories in the final section, ‘Bound’, were first published in a separate volume described in ‘Magnetic North’ as a ‘colourful rainbow sculpture’ whose ‘readers had to construct each page’ (I’m not sure what they mean, but it sounds fascinating). Charles Fernyhough’s ‘Joyful Lagers of the World’ is the beautifully written tale of Carl, a man aiming to do his bit to help save Sunderland's brewing industry. It's a perfect balance of humour and a serious heart. And there's the marvellous contribution from Paul Magrs, 'The Great Big Book Exchange', which I'm sure will appeal to anyone who loves books; I trust that describes everyone reading this..?

I don't really feel that I've been able to give a proper analysis of ‘Magnetic North’ in this review; so it doesn't feel fair to pass judgement on it in the usual way. Instead, I will say that reading the book made me wish I'd been at the live events (or had seen the original version of 'Bound'). But this is the next best thing.

David Hebblethwaite lives out in the wilds of Yorkshire, where he attempts to make a dent in his collection of unread books. You can read more of David's reviews at his review blog.

© 2006 Laura Hird All rights reserved.