BOOKS PREVIEW
§ ” —l ~( 3“ 1 I :2 “' re“ A.
lllcholas Saunders: lnfonned ecstacy user I Ecstasy And The Dance Culture Nicholas Saunders (Saunders £9.95) The death earlier this summer ofJulia Young. at The Palace club in Aberdeen. once again highlighted the dangers of ecstasy use. Yet. while the press concentrated on the drug. it continued to ignore other factors leading to the tragedy.
The Government's declared policy on drugs education is to provide the whole truth about illicit drugs so people can judge for themselves whether they are worth the risk. Yet it continually fails to provide this information.
Step up Nicholas Saunders with this informed. easily read. comprehensive guide to the ecstasy experience. Although Saunders is a declared ecstasy user. he is not afraid to address the negative as well as the positive sides of the drug. However. he has no truck with the journalists and politicians who. with misinformed comment. have vilified ecstasy and those who use it.
Saunders has ptrt a great deal of care into this book. drawing on personal accounts. medical papers and interviews. It is not just a guide to the drug itself. but the club culture in which it is most commonly used. He also highlights the drug‘s less hedonistic and more socially beneficial uses.
Whether yotr use ecstasy. have friends or children you are afraid might he doing so. or are simply interested in dance culture. this is a crucial buy. (Thom Dibdin)
NATIONAL POETRY DAY
Well versed
National Poetry Day on 12 October is set to drag verse out of its academic closet, putting it up in lights, on postcards and across sound systems. Ann Donald speaks to novelist-turned bard Janice Galloway about one of the day’s highlights.
Apan from the slew of poetry readings being held everywhere frotn swimming pools to cyberspace on National Poetry Day. Glasgow is playing host to what promises to be a creative musical twist on the iambic pentameter.
The fruit of a collaboration between composer Sally Beamish and writer Janice Galloway. a song cycle entitled Clara will be performed by mezzo- soprano Sandra Porter and pianist Graeme McNaught. Performed in Glasgow venue Adelaide‘s. it is part of an evening‘s performance of four song cycles. A Woman Ir Life and Love. The Clara in question is Clara Schumann. a composer and pianist of international repute during the early 19th century. whose subsequent marriage to the then unknown Robert Schumann had an irreversibly negative effect upon her own work.
Scottish novelist and one-time music critic. Galloway explains in the programme notes to the work A Woman '3' Life And Love how she came to unfold the story of a woman she excitedly describes as having led a Gone With The Wind-type life. The
Janice Galloway: poet for a day
have much patience with the idea that poetry and prose are different beasts. I like this idea of fudgng boundaries.‘ Despite this intention to present the two separate forms as one melded whole. (ialloway is obvioust aware of the pros and cons of writing each. ‘l'll tell you something.‘ she says; ‘I found it much easier to write poetry than prose. and that‘s going to really infuriate some people. With poetry you
. don't have to \\ rite proper sentences seriously. The structure doesn‘t have to . DC US CUIlsc‘ltHle Silt? concedes: '( )kll}:
it has to be higth metred and rhytlnmc.-
but then prose has to be that if it's going to be good. You don‘t ham to make poetry as fluid because it‘s
area/rial that‘s part ol what poetry
prose poems were written. she explains. j
‘using literal German translations and words taken from the famous marriage diaries of Robert and Clara and of Friedrich Wiech. Mendelssohn and Heine . . . forged to fit suitable metre - and my own 20th century ‘hindsight' ideas on tiny fragments of Clara‘s life.‘ i mention to Galloway that l was unaware of her ‘poetic' standing. So. it seems. is she. ‘l'm not a poet.‘ she laughs. ‘lt’s prose-poetry. I really don‘t
does.’
Having probably induced legions of uptight poetry lecturers toiump lerttming-like from their ivory towers with this last statement. (ialloway considers her attitude to National Poetry Day. ‘.-\s a member of the general public myself. the word ‘poetry‘ has always meant absolute poison.‘ she says. ‘ln so far as it [National Poetry Day! raises awareness and as long as there are plenty of
, cotlttltttttily events. then great. as it might help reclaim the word.’ National Poetry Day rv on line /3 ()(‘L
.‘l Woman is life (1an love. I'nr‘ltrrltng
('lrlm by Sally [lemurs/r and Janice (ill/lrnt‘rll. M (II xir/(‘l’rr'lr/it'ih. 20‘) liar/r
.S/l‘r'r’l. 248497lhn1 i/llt’ l2 (1/ 7.30pm.
'Iir'kr’ls (oil 41/ ([3).
imman-
i’ lUK-WIOE
t I Griff Rhys Jones, presenter of BBC 2’s ; Bookworm launches the first ever TV poll ; for the nation’s favourite poem. Gall 3891 555 300 to vote. ; I Readings on Radio 1 and Radio 3, BBC 1 and BBC 2 from celebrities with a ' poetic bent. I The Poetry Society launches its poetry § pages on the Internet with the Poetry Map - an interactive information and imagination service on all aspects of
poetry.
i GLASGOW
I Paraig Maclleil ().3()pni. liree. f (‘ondorrat Library. North Road. ; ("umbernauld 01230 73(iol5. Scottish songs for children of eight years and over from a man well-known for his traditional Gaelic and Jacobite-inspired stories. I Sandra Porter, Graeme McNaught, , Gerda Stevenson 7.30pm. £4 (£2). j Adelaide's. 20‘) Bath Street. 248 4970. The performance ofxl Woman '5‘ Life xi/lt/ /.m'(‘. including a song-cycle by Sally 5 Beamish and Janice Galloway. See National Poetry Day preview. I Elspeth Dickie, George Lyle, Stan Bell, Alistair Paterson 12.30pm and 6pm. Call venue for tickets. Adelaide's. 20‘) Bath Street. 248 4970. Throwing Muses l‘erform sit/annex" -« nrusic. movement and the spoken word. I Jack Hirschman and Peter Plate Sun l5. 2pm.}.‘2/L‘1.(KIA.350Sauchiehall Street. 333 0523. As near to National Poetry Day as the ('(‘A gets. Hirschman's work explores love. life on the streets and . hunger while Plate. at Polygon virtuoso. ‘weaves the harsh urban details of Californian life with the pure desert space that surrounds it.’
EDINBURGH
I Tom Leonard, Janet Paisley, Brian
: Whittingham 8pm. Free. Bonnyrigg
library. Polton Street. Bonnyrigg. Ol3l
(r63 (i762. ()ne of Scotland's best-known poets Tom Leonard alongside former Writer-in-Residence with (ilasgow Libraries. Janet Paisley who is building tip an enviable reputation on the live reading circuit plus editor with West ('oas! magazine Whittingham.
I Laurie Barber Free. Central Library.
E (ieorge VI Bridge. (H31 225 5584. Him/s ' .rlll Strung Out —- a sculpture event — poetry in the making.
I PJ Kavanagh and Gael Turnbull 7.45pm. £3 (£2). The Netherbow. 43—45
; High Street. 556 957‘). Actor. broadcaster and columnist Kavanagh's ('oller'terl l’oemv hasjust appeared in paperback.
Gael 'l‘urnbull is a former anaesthetist who founded one of the pioneering poetry presses in Britain which has published the likes of Edwin Morgan and Roy Fisher.
The story of an extraordinary lifetime continues...
Don’t. miss Winston Groom’s irresistible sequel to Forrest Gump.
Out now in Black Swan paperback
Forrest (Jump now available to buy on video.
Winston
G Griffi
94 The List 6-19 Oct I995