This book is a milestone for me as my first collection
of poems, but it is also something of a milestone in being one
of the first published books of the newly launched UKA
Press. There
are new publishing ventures starting all the time of course, but
I believe this one to be rather more special in that it represents
a true collaboration between the worlds of traditional publishing
and web publishing.
The UKAuthors website provides a marvellous forum for writers to show and
discuss their work and through its association with Bluechrome now offers
a new opportunity for writers to get into print. I hope that the book world
- and in my case the poetry world - will welcome this development and give
it the encouragement it deserves.
This collection represents a selection of my work since I started
to write poetry ten years ago. It’s a mixture of old and recent, traditional
and modern, rhyming and free. All of the poems are a mixture of truth and
imagination, but I won’t be divulging which is which.
Here is a review in its entirety (warts and all!) by Patrick
Osada:
"Webber is clearly a talented poet. He is able to express a
range of emotion & to employ different styles and techniques
to engage with his readers. My only criticism is that sometimes
he tries too hard.
Take his Drinker's sonnet (a parody of Shakespeare's Sonnet xviii).
"
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" becomes "Shall
I compare thee to a brewer's dray?"....and continues in
similar vein to the final line of the toast. All skilfully done
( &, I'm sure, people will chuckle), but the overall effect
is of someone trying desperately hard to be funny..............We
can see the blood, sweat & tears, the wheels of the poem
going round.
To be 100% successful with parody, the poem must appear effortless.
Using as his starting place Carol Ann Duffy's collection, The
World's Wife (in which Duffy tells the stories of famous men
in history from the spouse's point of view), Webber comes up
with his addition to the genre, Mrs. Chaucer.
Whereas Shakespeare's Sonnet xviii is so well known that it works
against Webber's parody, Duffy's Mrs. Aesop is less familiar,
allowing Webber to borrow her form and style, whilst producing
a poem that appears engaging and fresh. He also cunningly produces
an extrovert "larger than life" Chaucer, the opposite
to the timid and tedious Aesop.
..............".Quiet men,
Mrs. Chaucer," he'd say, "tell no tales. Well let me tell you now
that a tale in his hands was hard to believe,
never mind the two he had up his sleeve. Fabulous."
(Mrs. Chaucer).
Humour is frequently used in Webber's poems, often to make serious
points.
In Britain from space he remarks that.....A spendthrift nation
lights up space-.......................
..................And if you look really carefully
at eleven - twenty GMT
you can just see the pubs closing.........
(Britain from space)
I feel Webber is at his best with his more serious work & that
poems like Platonic lot ; Waverley station; He cares, & The
last dance speak with the resonance of experience. These poems
contain universal truths that should engage with all readers.........For
example, Webber's description of waking from a night of passion
in First Light :
As you emerge
from two dimensions into three,
my thoughts are cast
to how we'll never be again..........
.....I want back the selfish night,
you made no shadows in the dark. (First light)
I believe John Webber is a poet to watch. Private Histories
is a well-crafted first collection."
