Dear Mr Asquith

Nina Boyd

978-1-906613-21-1

£9.95

Overall winner of the 2009 Book & Pamphlet Competition, chosen by Andrew Motion

Nina Boyd was born in Hertfordshire and moved to West Yorkshire in the sixties, where she had three children and graduated from Leeds University. She was a nurse, and later a medical book indexer. She is currently completing an MA in writing at MMU, and working on a biography of Mary Sophia Allen, one of the first British policewomen. Nina lives in Huddersfield, where she runs the legendary Albert Poets readings.

'The first half of the book is a beautiful memoir of a post-war childhood consisting of "homework and roast beef," "limescale and Billy Cotton" and "all the knowledge needed to nourish discipline and fly a patriarchal empire's flag." The second half is a wonderful and moving verse study of the fight for women's suffrage, inspired by "reckless talk" and wild dreams of "bicycles, cropped hair and freedom."' — Andy Croft [read review here]

'A collection of cleanly-written and well-organised poems that, for all their efficiencies, are capable of leaving us with an appealing sense of mystery and unfinished business.' — Andrew Motion

‘These are fulfilled poems, written with a depth of feeling and lack of ostentation. The first part of the book holds many poems about family and friends seen through a child’s cool eye. Lives are summed up by single details that illuminate not just a person but a generation of men and women tarnished by war, poverty and ignorance. The second half of the book reaches new heights. The poems trawl historical records to tell hidden stories of ordinary, often hesitant, women who performed brave, dangerous and tragic acts in the name of Votes for Women. Already a prizewinning collection, Dear Mr Asquith deserves every accolade going. A necessary read.’ — Janet Fisher

'Nina Boyd’s first collection is an exhilarating and important contribution to our shelves. Boyd came late to writing, and maturity and life experience are what give her work its rich mixture of sonority and wit. Her assured voice has a quality of eldership, weighing with ruthless economy the excruciating ways in which humans habitually torment each other, with an even-handed compassion that challenges easy judgements as to who is the underdog. Many of the poems shine a light on post-war history through the prism of domesticity and low paid labour, neatly rebutting the still current accusation that women’s writing too often avoids the bigger issues at the expense of the personal.' — Cora Greenhill