Outside the Narrative

by Tom Leonard

Outside the Narrative contains what Tom Leonard wishes to retain in print of the poetry in his two main collections Intimate Voices (Poetry 1965-83) and access to the silence (Poems 1984-2004); also poems from Being a Human Being (2006) and new and unpublished work including an elegaic sequence for his mother, a prose memoir of his father, a poem-suite "on the page" and a tri-part envoi to the collection.

Genres: Poetry, Scotland

216 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2009

About the author

Tom Leonard (born 1944) was a Scottish poet, writer and critic. He is best known for his poems written in the Glaswegian dialect of Scots, particularly his Six Glasgow Poems and The Six O'Clock News. His work frequently dealt with the relationship between language, class and culture.

Leonard also wrote plays, sound poetry, political polemic and a biography of the 19th-century Scottish poet James ‘B.V.’ Thomson, Places of the Mind.

Reviews

[Cooch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four and a half stars

There are a few weaker patches and sometimes he can be didactic, but the many very good poems more than make up for these shortcomings.

[Christine Cather · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is great, great to see some of my favourites here, like 'the voyeur' ;mehta physics; great to read new hings 'don't tell wordsworth' "she dwelt among the untrodden ways
and went her messages by helicopter"

and much more greatly thought-provoking stuff.Great.

[Celtic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great stuff, from 'football haiku' to 'situations theoretical and contemporary', but diluted for me by more obscure pieces I enjoyed less - though they're possibly more intelligible by those who know Leonard's work better than I do.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes funny, sometimes bitter, but always very real and very readable.