But & Though
27 February 2025Synopsis
'Hawkey's poems are electric, buzzing with all the possibilities of language. He has much to say, and is saying it brilliantly' – Nick Laird, winner of the Forward Prize for Poetry and author of Up Late
The characters that live and breathe in Jake Hawkey’s impressive debut poetry collection are playful and spiritual, often both defensive and desperately vulnerable. Taking its title from the language of addiction, with its circles of prevarication and excuse, But & Though leads us on a boy’s journey through a childhood overshadowed by parental alcoholism.
These are poems on the move in the tapestry of London life – from the hospital ward to the back rows of the bus – where the desire for escape is also, paradoxically, a ‘Herculean search for home’. But & Though is a testament to the kinship ties that bind us together, however fraught they become, and a celebration of the working-class identity that defines the poet’s native south London. With a voice as spiky and irreverent as it is gentle, Jake Hawkey is a refreshing new talent in English poetry.
'This collection moved me to tears. It is not only daring and accomplished, it is real and written by a young man who has been on a long dark journey and found himself with light in his writing hand' - Sally Read, editor of 100 Great Catholic Poems
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27 February 2025
9781035048113Reviews
'Hawkey's poems are electric, buzzing with all the possibilities of language. He has much to say, and is saying it brilliantly' – Nick Laird, winner of the Forward Prize for Poetry and author of Up Late
Here is a wonderful new voice, full of a spiky energy accompanied by a wild imagination. His language bristles with a sense of its own freshness. His working-class world is alive and quivering. A brilliant collectionJay Parini, author of Borges and Me
A requiem to fathers, to the streets, to the estates; at times a smash in the face with a skateboard, laughing and ‘chattin breeze’. Hawkey unravels the raw truth behind grief, alcohol dependency, and family traumas, ultimately finding ‘God dwells in every man’Roy McFarlane, author of The Healing Next Time
Hawkey writes with serious ambition: these poems are daring in their formal organisation and their political intellect. There is also a real humour here, an ironic, knowing sensibility that never gets in the way of the poems' emotional contents. Hawkey tackles difficult subjects - alcohol dependency, deprivation, and intergenerational trauma - with admirable lucidity, attuned to both their tragedy and comedyPadraig Regan, author of the Forward Prize-shortlisted Some Integrity
