The Luncheon of the Boating Party

by Stewart Conn

The centrepiece of Stewart Conn's collection is a sequence of poems inspired by Renoir's famous painting The Luncheon of the Boating Party. Complementing these and other poems set vividly in southern France are evocations of people and places in his native Scotland and elsewhere. Stewart Conn can be wrily self-deprecatory one moment and startlingly moving the next, and in these new poems he manages to combine delicacy of perception with urgency of expression.

64 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1997

About the author

Stewart Conn is a Scottish poet and playwright, born in Hillhead, Glasgow. His father was a minister Kelvinside Church but the family moved to Kilmarnock, Ayrshire in 1941 when he was five. During the 1960s and 1970s, he worked for the BBC at their offices off Queen Margaret Drive and moved to Edinburgh in 1977, where until 1992 he was based as BBC Scotland's Head of Radio Drama. He was the inaugural Edinburgh City Makar from 2002 to 2005.

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very pleasant read. I do like the Girl in Hyacinth Blue better. You need to have a interest in Renoir, Impressionism or Paris to enjoy this read.

[Cara Mcnulty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. The author does a great job of letting you experience the place and time but I could not warm up to any of the characters.

[Joan Rumps · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great way to get to know Renior