some new books

First off, Drawn Chorus, an alphabet of birds in poems and pictures. It’s the first book that’s all my own work. And it’s about birds. And people, I suppose. Maybe writing about birds can tell you something about people too, perhaps more than the birds they’re supposedly writing about. You can see some more info here on my bookshop website, Gert Macky. I’ll be doing some readings at the Bristol Poetry Festival at the beginning of October. Which is a bit scary TBH.

And now a friend’s book. I’ve known Charlie Kiss for ages; our transitioning journeys happened at around the same time, though we were sort of travelling in opposite directions, as it were. We got to know each other through one of those internet forums that were and perhaps still are such a lifeline for people like me. Charlie’s book A New Man covers his transition and surgery but, interesting though that is, the other elements of his story are terrifically interesting too; his engagement with feminism, lesbian separatism, the Greenham Common peace camp, and political activism (he stood for the Green Party at the general election before last)… I was an occasional visitor to Greenham Common, back in the day; on the Embrace The Base day I brought some women friends up from Portsmouth in my van, and later dropped by a couple of times with supplies as I was passing. Obviously it was not possible for me to be more active with them, as I was gendered male at that time. Funny to think we were probably both there at the same time… though my activism was and is pretty lukewarm in comparison with Charlie’s.

 

Anyway, the book’s a jolly good read. I reviewed it over on Goodreads. If you want a copy, may I suggest that you buy it from the publisher, here at Troubador? -that way, he gets far more of the money that he would using Amazon.