I must admit, this collection from Margaret Royall has been a long time coming to us at the Hedgehog Press. I think it is safe to say that Margaret has appeared in more of our anthologies than anybody else and her Stickleback for us was very much a personal favourite. But I’m more than proud to say that this quite beautiful in every sense book, is finally available today and I’m not sure I have ever been quite so proud.
This collection is primarily a celebration of all things floral, yet is much more than that, being also a hymn to life, for the poems are written from unusual and sometimes challenging perspectives. The poems in the 1st section, ‘Flower Power /People Power’, directly connect to flowers and plants either by extolling their virtues or by connecting flowers to people in an alternative way. The second section ‘Roses and Thorns’ gives an in-depth retrospective on the inherent joys and sorrows of life’s journey from cradle to grave, seen from the perspective of a woman in her third age, whose life has been punctuated by chronic illness, grief and loss. Yet they are very much an anthem to survival, a way of seeking peace and closure by exploring more difficult themes through the medium of poetry.
Find out how to buy a Signed Copy HERE
About Margaret Royall
Margaret’s fascination for landscape poetry, myth, legend and nature have been enhanced by annual writing retreats on the beautiful island of Iona, painting in Crete and writing in her beloved France. She was short-listed in 2018 for the Crowvus and the Bangor Literary Festival Poetry Prizes. Her work has featured in many anthologies by Hedgehog Poetry Press and recently won their collection competition, to be published 2021. Her poetry has appeared in both The Blue Nib and Impspired Literary Journals among others. In May 2020 her memoir of childhood, The Road To Cleethorpes Pier, was published to great acclaim, receiving straight 5 star Amazon reviews. She is a regular performer at open mic nights and leads a poetry workshop in Nottinghamshire.
“Margaret Royall’s ‘Where Flora Sings’ is a collection to lift the spirits during the long winter nights. Royall’s love of all things natural shines through on every page and the reader cannot help but share her delight through such beautifully observed, life-affirming poems. Though she acknowledges that nature can be brutal and life precarious, there is an unwavering optimism and faith in these poems. Age isn’t to be feared but to be valued and admired; nostalgia isn’t melancholic but comforting; to grieve is to have loved; and death is a precursor to resurrection. At the end of her poem, ‘Amaryllis’ Royall writes:’ Sweet memories of this colourful profusion/will stay forever locked within my heart’, capturing perfectly what this reader will take away from her collection. ”
- Nigel Kent
“Margaret Royall’s second collection is a highly personal work. She conveys her love of flowers, and their significance to her, both as a woman, and as a poet. She employs a number of diverse narrative tones in this volume, from contemporary and conversational through to voices drawn from received literary traditions. Humour, reflection and spirituality thread through her poems, too. Margaret invokes all five senses as she treats the reader to encounters with blossoms, and wider natural environments. Her poems are informed by her interest in horticulture, geology and music, though she wears this lightly. Her pieces are also underpinned by her passion for the natural world and the welfare of our planet. She uses the motif of seasonal shifts to reflect stages in her subjects’ life journeys, and her metaphors are painterly and enrich her poetry.
A wide range of poetic forms appear in the collection. I particularly enjoyed the complexity of her ‘Sestina for a Medieval Birthing’ and the affecting simplicity of ‘September on Iona 1’. The collection is enhanced by a pervasive sense of temporality, as expressed in ‘Midnight Stardust’. I am sure that we will be reading more from this sensitive writer, a dedicated and prolific poet.”
- Ceinwen E Cariad Haydon
Product details
- Paperback : 68 pages
- ISBN-13 : 978-1-913499-43-3
- Product Dimensions : 14.81 x 0.15 x 21.01 cm
- Official Release Date: 28th November 2020
- Order Signed Copies direct from Margaret Royall by contacting her HERE