Jacob Polley

Talk of the Town

Jacob Polley’s first novel was published by Picador in June 2009.

Set in Carlisle in 1986, on the last day of the summer holidays, Talk of the Town is the exhilarating and terrifying story of Christopher Hearsey’s search for his best mate, Arthur

‘A fierce cry of talent, raw as a confession and tender as a poem. Polley’s language is mercurial, his humour quick and surprising. A moving and unmissable debut.’ Chris Cleave (author of The Other Hand/Little Bee and Incendiary)

‘Polley unflinchingly patrols the moral borders – and boredom – at which vulnerable young minds might be tipped into violence…Talk of the Town is about youngsters testing emotional, geographical and temporal limits, dramatically involved in events which unfold in the eerie space between days. Polley’s beguiling prose style tests the limits of language, blending lyricism with brutality; juxtaposing tenderness with vicious criminality… rated 5/5′ (Anita Sethi in the Independent on Sunday)

‘…harm is something Chris has been aware of from the first; it is the unseen power that has circumscribed his existence, from the way he walks to the look on his face, yet he has never known how intricate and treacherous it really is. It is one of the many achievements of Talk of the Town that, as we read, we hope he will emerge, if not physically unscathed, then at least not so emotionally damaged that he sinks permanently into the grim rictus of cool.’ (John Burnside in the Guardian)

Little Gods

Little Gods was published in 2006.

‘Polley’s ability to balance exquisite form with surprising material it never quite subdues keeps this collection alive and breathing in a way that is rare in the era of the workshop poem…’ (Fiona Sampson in The Liberal)

To read the full review click here.

To read three reviews from The Times click here, here and here.

Read The Cheapjack (shortlisted for the 2006 Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem)

The Brink

The Brink was published in 2003. It was a Poetry Book Society Choice and shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot, Forward and John Llewellyn Rhys Prizes.

‘the kind of poetry that imbues the everyday, the tarnished and burnished, with the possibilities of the transcendent’ (the Guardian)

‘a sparkling collection of crystalline poems’ (The Times)

Click to read the review of The Brink from The Times. And the review from the Times Literary Supplement

Read A Jar of Honey from The Brink.