Arthur Talks - Ruth Hobson

Poetry about the homeless and how their lives evoke the legendary figure of King Arthur. Some poetry looks inwards and serves only its own ends, but the poems here serve the memory of the real people you sense behind the characters who populate it. They are portrayed with a remarkably precise eye and ear, and without any hint of sentimentality. These sharp, funny and touching poems enact their stories like scenes from a play with a cast (Spider, Chalky, Blind Mary and The Weasel are a few) who seem unnaturally vivid and real. The nicknames describe the family-like intimacy of a community existing as a subset within the larger society, a community completely at home in this lively book.