Judder Men

£4.50£6.50

The men that judder in and out of view and thought in these clear but aslant poems are real and imagined, monsters and heroes, loved and reviled, fathered and childless, afraid and brave, dead and unborn, sinned against and sinning. The language of Judder Men is compressed, yet oddly lucid, compelling us to find out what lies just beyond the safe places.

Read a sample.

Published 1st April 2021

What Writers and Critics Think

  • This sparkling debut pamphlet is full of energy, wit, and a rare freshness of approach. Here is the poet as vivid (but never heavy) autobiographer, sharp-focused historian, partaker in life and engaged observer. From go-karts and cast iron statues on Crosby beach, to Victorian imprisonment for shirt-theft, to a fainting bursar, a dead tenant, and our daily bread, Bransfield has written a pamphlet full of poems that come from ‘deep within the fluid of the eye’.

    Keith Hutson
  • It is this very ability to lose himself and us, between past and present, day and night, the everyday and the fantastical, that gives this whole collection its own peculiar beauty and makes Bransfield’s achievement both timely and timeless.

    Paul Taylor-McCartney, Everybody's Reviewing

Description

Praise for Ben Bransfield

‘Ben Bransfield’s sharply observational poems focus on his growing up in Shropshire, and on his family – […] Fond nostalgia is undercut by darkness […]. The idea of courting risk recurs in ‘Amanita phalloides’, a poem about male infertility, “Though I cannot bear a child of my own, / I might one day have a Death Cap Mushroom.” Who could have predicted that? There is mordant humour when the ‘father’ realizes he may not be able to protect the child, “I still get nervous every summer’s end, / when the druids and foragers might creep”, with an aim to eat it, even though “no known antidote exists.” […] Such is the flair displayed by each of these poets that I can only wait eagerly for their individual collections.’ – Pam Thompson on Primers Vol.2 in Sabotage Reviews

 

‘Ben Bransfield’s work is crisp and incisive. […] Excellent, polished writing about memory and loss.’ – David Harmer in Primers Vol.2 in Orbis 181

 

‘Ben drew us in with a poetry that is intimately entangled with place; poems that offer up tangible slices of lives lived, a celebration of family ties and personal portraits with all of their emotional complexities, but also sharp, unexpected turns.’ – Jane Commane on Primers Vol.2

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Ben Bransfield was born in Shropshire and now lives in London. He read English at Brasenose College, Oxford, received an MA from the Shakespeare Institute, and graduated from the National Film and Television School. Named a Poetry Society Teacher Trailblazer, Ben has taught in schools for over a decade and was selected by the Poetry School and Nine Arches Press for the Primers mentoring scheme. He serves on the board of the Stephen Spender Trust.

Additional information

Weight N/A
Dimensions N/A
Format

Pamphlet, eBook (ePub)

ISBN

978-1-912196-54-8, 978-1-912196-55-5

Pages

36

Publication Year

April 2021