Foreword: I have been married to the author for fifty years now. Nevertheless that is no reason why I cannot review this book

Sheila has been writing poetry for most of her life; the past fifteen years have been her most prolific, her work being published in a number of independent publications and success in competitions. This year her ambition was realised and a collection of one theme in her writing  Spotlit Under Street Lamps was published in the UK in June.

The thirty poems are reflections and accounts of family life, set against the backdrop of the UK city of Birmingham. Whereas similar bodies of work will centre on personal recollections of experiences and observations, through steady research Sheila drew on records of various family members. Thus the poems cover an era from the latter quarter of the 19th Century up to her own earlier years of the 1950s and 60s, seen through the experiences of individuals living at the hard practical edge of life.

To initially illustrate this, the first ten poems are set in Victorian and Edwardian eras and the during turbulent decade which involved World War 1, the impact of that war, and the suffragette movement through the experiences of folk whose major concerns were very much the day to day ones   

Starting with poignancy displayed in ‘Her mark’ s opening lines:
‘is a single X instead of Catherine,
inked next to Benjamin
on the register of Kingsbury Parish
March19th 1871′ 

With an eye for the small details of the domestic servant’s life in  ‘Up at the big house – January 24th 1901′
‘Cramped four to a bed, kitchen and laundry maids rub each
other’s sore feet’

And maybe not the outlook your were expecting in the poem involving the suffrage movement ‘The Preoccupations of Women’ 

Woven carefully into the narratives of the poems ‘Munitionette Birmingham 1916′, ‘War Wounds and Peacetime Photographs’,  ‘My Grandad Ernie’s Rosary Beads’ and ‘My Grandad Ernie finds a use for his campaign medals’ are the themes of work, war and aftermath. Not in the stark, dramatic traditions, these are delivered in the settings of the routine of the Homefront, the quiet interludes between conflicts and in the long path of decades on, giving the reader the opportunity to consider those events from a quieter and thoughtful place.  

Poetry is a medium in which the writer needs to make each word count as much as say ten or twenty in a story, and Sheila accomplishes this in the journey through the lives of family members. Events of tenderness Sheila’s parents’ first meetings at a place of work ‘They Met At Fisher and Ludlow- 1948’   along with the work-a-day episodes ‘Granny Bridget Rolls Up Her Sleeves’ . Each one is given the same attention to detail and observation. Those whose subject matter are based on her own memories and experiencing ‘Railway bridges and back-to-backs – 1959′  or ‘When I swap stories with my long-lost cousin Pat’  convey both the imagery of witness and poignancy, the both reveal the loss of a father in his mid-forties.

‘Brummies’ accent and style of talking often comes as very conversational, even when the topics are redolent with emotion which is a strength of these poems and this can appear in their writing too. But consider the subject and words threaded together in the phrases and you have the scene coming right at you; 

‘Your mum’s dabbing her eyes.
Mum who never weeps
turns a working holiday
into the year’s highlight.
You’re nineteen tomorrow
and suddenly, bab, you’re afraid’

(Closing verse of  ‘Somerset summers’ set in September 1939)

Anthems to those folk never mentioned in the histories but without them there would be less colourful and richer nations. Quietly powerful, sunrises and moonrises shining through The Past’s Mists.  

Footnote: The books are being sold independently from our home £9.50 / $12.50 / 11.30 euros. (Includes Postage & Packaging, anywhere globally). Enquiries for further information e-mail nnqp1863@yahoo.co.uk   

Or pay by PayPal: address- she1jac@yahoo.com