Full Scottish Breakfast
Red Squirrel Press, 2011.
58 pages. £6.99
isbn 978-1-906700-51-5.
full scottish breakfast is a headlong journey from space age innocence through to cynicism and eventually into bemused middle age, taking in frantic and funny encounters with mad teachers, wrecked cars, heroes, villains, painters, sheep, chihuahuas and dead relatives along the way in an attempt to make sense of whatever has led to here.
'an aptly discomfiting collection, and a beautifully evocative diorama
of “mortal grace”. in a single breath, you go from surface to depth and
back again, and history and the multiverse in between. each word, a tiny,
perfectly-placed depth charge. the effect isgiddying,revelatory. this is
the sensational alex harvey band in ink and infinity; the book you’d hold
close on the last ship to outer space.'
Suhayl Saadi
'graham fulton has been one of scotland's foremost poets for many years,
and this is one of his most complete and representative collections among
others published over the last few years. 'full scottish breakfast' takes us
on a trip from the absurd to the tragic, the tiny to the cosmic, the loving
to the angry, and that's just for starters. he can be hilarious, gut-wrenchingly
affecting and deep by turns, turning the relatively small area of his native
town and city of paisley and glasgow into a universal place, and sharing it
with us in his profoundly quiet, powerful voice. the intense humanity of
these poems is what you will take with you long after you're read them.
get hold of this collection from a leading poet
at the height of his powers.'
David Manderson
'graham fulton speaks boldly. there is an abruptness and aggressive tone
in fulton that may shock some … he quickly gets to
the heart of the matter'.
Scottish Review of Books
Upside Down Heart
Controlled Explosion Press, 2012.
32 pages. £6.
isbn 978-0-9558996-9-0.
a collection of 22 love poems featuring full colour illustrations by artist becky bolton.
The Zombie Poem
Controlled Explosion Press, 2011.
20 pages. £4.
isbn 978-0-9558996-8-3.
An epic poem about going through the surreal casting procedure
for the zombie movie world war z starring brad pitt which was
partially filmed in glasgow in august 2011.
'It's brilliant … lines jumping out of the page that speak directly
to me at my age and the place and timeIam.'
Raymond Soltysek
The Ruin Of Poltalloch
Controlled Explosion Press, 2011.
36 pages. £5.
isbn 978-0-9558996-7-6.
a single poem accompanied by black and white photographs of
the beautiful and haunting ruin of poltalloch house in mid argyll,
ancestral home of the malcolm family.
Open Plan
Smokestack Books, 2011.
72 pages. £7.95.
ISBN 978-0-9564175-6-5
‘By the sweat of your brow will you eat until you return to the ground,since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.’ These days most of us earn our daily bread sweating over spread-sheets, agendas and unanswered e-mails. There are 10m office workers in the UK, sharing over 200m square metres of office space. White-collar workers are the new proletariat. And yet office work has rarely been the subject of poetry.
Open Plan is a demented elegy to all the minutes, days and years that slip through a hole beneath our tidy open plan desks. Graham Fulton writes with wit and compassion of the world of e-mails, post-its, tea-breaks and sickies, of the little rituals, the red tape and the humdrum flexi hours punctuated by moments of mayhem, of those who are here to stay and those who are just passing through, of the things we need to do to stay sane, just to make it through to the next day. Alice in Wonderland meets David Brent. Office workers of the world unite – you have nothing to lose but your paper-clip chains.
‘Open Plan is told in Fulton’s characteristic edgy rhythms with that near-nasty
dark wit of his. It’s a book that offers the office as a prism of a wider social
disembodiment, though it is also a portrait with surprising affection.’
Richard Price
‘Ive always been a fan.’
Liz Lochhead
Black Motel/ The Man who Forgot How to
Roncadora Press, 2010.
40 pages. £8.
ISBN 978-0-9535804-3-9.
2 collections in one, featuring beautiful black and whitemonotype illustrations by artist Hugh Bryden. Hand-stitchedand in a limited edition of 300. The Black Motel half is asequence of 20 dreams in the order they happened in thewinter of 2006/2007. A stark, unsettling collection of sleepinganxieties. The Man who Forgot How to half is a collection ofwaking anxieties, full of edgy, fleeting encounters with strangecharacters. An exploration of isolation and claustrophobia forour new age of austerity.
For any orders or enquiries about the listedpublications, or to organise a poetry
reading, please contact:
Controlled Explosion Press,
Flat 9, 32 Greenlaw Drive, Paisley,
Scotland, United Kingdom, PA1 3RU
Reading at the StAnza Poetry Festival 2007: Clone of Destiny
Some dayIwill go to Edinburgh
to see Dolly the Sheep at the Royal Museum.
Frankenstein muncher, superstar ruminant,
James Whale floozy, helix freak.
Boxed on a shrunken acre of soil,
a skimpy ration of virtual grass;
grazing amongst Industrial puffers,
coughing jallopies, cartoon machines.
The milestones of enlightenment.
Auld Reekie at the cutting edge.
It’s alive! It’s alive! said Colin Clive
as he winced at the stitched-up flatskull result
of mucking about with Hollywood brains.
The lightning zinged, the cameras rolled.
A mutton enigma, Da Vinci smile.
Today a cell, tomorrow a Man!
And what did you get out of it Dolly
before your date with the taxidermist?
Extra straw and early arthritis,
dodging a fate of mint sauce and carrots.
I know something you don’t know.
The secrets of life, the age of God.
Post-modern Prometheus Holyrood geeks,
hooves in the footsteps of Bell and Baird.
We’ll raise a dram to your DNA.
Scotland, as usual, showing the way.
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