Author

Sharp Street tells the story of 140 men who died in World War I. They were all from an area of Hull that is a relic of the Industrial Revolution; growing up together, working together and supporting local Rugby teams. The poems offer a narrative of the War from the opening salvos through to the Armistice. The central characters include Mina, a Mother of three girls and four boys who died in the conflict. One poem, Mina’s Dream uses the image of running into the sea as a metaphor for the machine guns that met the men in no-man’s land. Another poem, Rugs, brings us back to the contemporary conflict in Afghanistan. An end is beginning starts with the notion that you die twice: once when you stop breathing and second when people stop talking about you. The poems seek to keep the talk going.