Wordsmithery*
Finalist (Publishing) Kent Creative Awards 2016
Winner (Literature) Medway Culture, design and tourism awards 2015
BARRY FENTIMAN HALL
England, my dandelion heart (pub. 2018)
Sketches by Baz (pub. 2020)
Aground (2022)
Austerity Soup (2023)
Barry Fentiman Hall is a writer who walks, based in the Medway Delta.
He is the editor of Confluence magazine and co-director of the Rainham Poetry Festival (2023) and Medway River Lit (2023).
He has been widely published including poems in; Anti-Heroin Chic, Crack the Spine, Picaroon, The Blue Nib, The Journal, The Cormorant, Foxtrot Uniform, Lit Quarterly Canada, Dissonance, International Times, Lucent Dreaming, and The Writer’s Cafe Magazine; and anthologies including Well Dam! and Please hear what I’m not saying.
He likes foxes.
(Photo of Barry at Medway River Lit 2023, by Nikki Price)
Austerity Soup
£5 plus £2 P+P (UK-only)
AUSTERITY SOUP - Beat Poems for the Beat
(2023) A poetry collection
A recipe for austerity:
Firstly ensure your kitchen has a fully hostile environment;
then marinate five stuffed Prime Ministers in their own juice for 12 years (and counting);
add a bunch of roughly chopped benefits;
stir the pot with some thinly disguised racism;
then garnish with a non-apology.
Bon Appetit!
A political poetry collection of 22 poems.
Aground
£7.50 inc P+P (UK-only)
AGROUND
(2021) A short story
Aground is a 20-page pamphlet which tells a fantastical story of a sea monster, an immortal deity, a lost boy and a poet.
Written by Barry as part of his fascination with the myths and stories of the Isle of Sheppy.
7 full colour illustrations by Sam Hall.
Sketches by Baz
£12 inc P+P (UK-only)
SKETCHES BY BAZ
(2020) A poetry collection
BFH observes the people and places of Medway, England; the robberies, the crashes, the anger, the people on the street who are simply just there, having no place else to be.
“In the foreword to Sketches, Barry Fentiman Hall points out there isn’t much about Charles Dickens in this book, and while this is true, Dickens’s warmth for humanity (even while critiquing the unpleasantness of it) is certainly here. He observes contemporary issues through commonplace moments, and with language that sings, these poems give everyday England a new sort of mythology in the process.” Kate Garrett (The saint of milk and flames Rhythm & Bones Press, April 2019.)
“In Sketches, Fentiman Hall climbs right inside the soul of the UnCity to document the rotten fruit, the sweet berries, the poets, the drunks, the racists and the rising tides. His eye is honest, sharp and kind and his words take you with him on a lyrical dance that makes Medway almost beautiful.” Sarah Hehir (writer for The Archers and Doctors)
“Let the author take you with him on a journey. He takes in the mundane and cherishes it. He captures accents and records gestures. Sketches is linked by three incidents and a heart of Wetherspoons. You know if you have been in a room or on a street with the author, you feel seen. He inventories the litter and the lost, the silent and the still. They are all here within the rain and by the river. Fentiman Hall will take you to the far end of town, to places you didn’t know existed, to places of foxes, bats and squirrels and will leave you spinning drunkenly in his ‘nostalgic rain’. He will not flinch from gestures but will record them, he will bask in accents and you will bask with him between the incidents.” Sarah L Dixon (The Quiet Compere)
England, my dandelion heart
£10 plus £2 P+P (UK-only)
ENGLAND, MY DANDELION HEART
(2018) A poetry collection
This debut collection marks the culmination of two and a half years of the poet being lost in England in the time of Dave ‘n’ Teri. These poems attempt to capture the dandelion heart of the nation. Dandelions ‘grow anywhere and bloom many times. They even possess a unique beauty when their flower decays and the light catches them in just the right way. Ready to catch the breeze and brighten the world a little in the future. It’s good to be a dandelion.’
Reviews of England, my dandelion heart:
“A bold, daring collection that is both a lament for and a celebration of England, the Medway delta and the poet’s Northern roots.” Bill Lewis (author of In The House Of Ladders and The Long Ago And Eternal Now)
“Barry Fentiman Hall is an expert archaeologist of abjection, conjuring living fossils and rented moments, burrowing down through the strata beneath the face on the streets. This is poetry that rescues something important from being trod into the carpet; that finds its feet where the rain gets heavier and understands that there is not always a choice between death and flight.” Phil Smith (author of Mythogeography and Anywhere)
