Geography and all that Jazz

If you're in Sheffield on the 31st of October get yourself down to the Showroom to hear my friend Rob Hindle read from his collection "Neurosurgery in Iraq". This is Rob's first collection of poetry , although he did publish a sequence of poems on the Sheffield Flood, and has had material in various anthologies and publications. He is also a regular at local poetry festivals. I have read the collection and there are some wonderful pieces in there, some of which also have added resonance: I too remember Connell's dog, and the washer women in the gipsy 'district' of Madrid across the road from where Rob lived for a time. Some pieces are developed from blog postings, and there are quite a few geographical references in there too... Rob Hindle writes movingly and powerfully of Spain and South Yorkshire and beyond, captured and then liberated in a language that sings – Ian McMillan

Thanks to Rob Hindle for sending me a copy of his poetry collection “ Some Histories of the Sheffield Flood 1864 ”. This is a response to an event which few people know about, when the Dale Dyke Dam up in the hills above Sheffield burst, and water poured down through the city along the Loxley and Don valleys. The book is published by Templar Poetry and costs £3. This is backed up by a page on GeographyPages , which features some versions of the poems that Rob sent me last year. Why not sample the poems on the websites and then order a copy for yourself. Keep an eye out for more poetry readings around Sheffield as well.