No challenge at all to get enjoyment from poetry

Jan 13 2010 by David Whetstone, The Journal

It won’t win the TS Eliot Prize but it will make you smile and it does fit the book’s sole criterion – and if that passes for critical judgment, perhaps you’ll feet better now, Jeff.

Seriously, this is a very enjoyable and attractive book. It made me not only smile but laugh.

Kate Fox, who has emerged from spoken word bashes in the North East to embrace national celebrity, is represented by One in a Million, her hilarious calculation of all the eligible blokes in the world – many, many less than you might imagine, if you’re a bloke.

Book of TEN, it turns out, was not a lightning response to the turn of the year. Rather, it is a product of Ten by Ten, a regular spot for poets at the Cumberland Arms in Byker, to which the book is dedicated.

It has been running for three years and has proved remarkably popular. Every month 10 people get 10 minutes to showcase their work in a warm and beery setting. The contributors are some of the Ten by Ten performers.

The book concludes with Jeff’s Ten Top Tips from Ten by Ten, with advice such as: “Performing poetry is a bit like sex. You think that a few drinks might improve your performance but believe me it doesn’t”; and “Feel the power of the pause”.

The next Ten by Ten session is at the Cumberland Arms on January 21 with doors open at 7.30pm. It’s £3 on the door.

Book of Ten is published by Zebra Publishing and costs £6 (ISBN: 978-0-9563887-0-4).