Emily Wills has a sharp mind and a loving heart. Her first collection was published by The Rialto in 2000, and her second, Developing the Negative, in 2008. Emily is one of those poets who work and re-work their poems, an admirable and recommended practice – look at the gaps between Larkin\u2019s collections.<\/p>\n
U A Fanthorpe says her work is \u2018economical, exact, exciting…. and I found that once I began reading I simply couldn\u2019t put it down.\u2019 She also says that the poems are \u2018strong and very well-crafted,\u2019 and she adds, \u2018she has important things to say, and she says them freshly and memorably\u2019.<\/p>\n
Emily lives in Gloucestershire, where she works as a GP. The book is dedicated \u2018To My Family\u2019, and what comes to mind is the recollection that GPs used to be spoken of as Family Doctors. The poems are peopled with family – her parents, grand-parents, children, and partner, but the wider family that her workplace, and the world, bring in is always present – look at the tender, \u2018Counting Snowdrops,\u2019 and how, quietly, passionately, it connects with the millions who protested the Iraq war .<\/p>\n
Anthony Thwaite remarks that her poems \u2018look into ordinary things and find their strangeness\u2019. \u2018She is\u2019 he says, \u2018highly intelligent, both scientifically and philosophically…. and her acute knowledge of the things of this world… is touched with magic.\u2019<\/p>\n
This is an important second collection and establishes Emily Wills as a strong voice in contemporary poetry.<\/p>\n
The Recipe for Marmalade<\/strong><\/p>\n is coded in my genes, a gift The script copperplates warnings, Tough sunless fruit And yet she has handed down Emily Willis was born in Hampshire in 1958. She went to medical school in Bristol and worked with her husband at a rural hospital in Malawi in the late 1980s. They have three children and live in Gloucestershire, where Emily works as a part-time GP. Her first collection, Diverting the Sea, was published by The Rialto in 2000, and her second, Developing the Negative, in 2008.<\/p>\n \u2018Emily Wills\u2019 gift lies in choosing quite ordinary things and seeing through them into strangeness\u2026\u2019 \u2018Watch out for Emily Wills\u2019 work and be prepared to be surprised\u2026\u2019
\nI can\u2019t refuse. As birds fly south
\nwith shrinking light, so palegrey
\nJanuary afternoons induce this need
\nfor bitter unwaxed oranges,
\nglinting sugar landslides,
\nwindows dribbling steam.<\/p>\n
\nfor sweetness boils hotter,
\nblood drips thicker than water.
\nDon\u2019t ask \u2013 it\u2019s the recipe
\nthe family use. Don\u2019t touch \u2013
\nold blades can skin you raw.<\/p>\n
\ncollapses with heat, flabby peel
\nold woman\u2019s skin under the knife.
\nGrandmother\u2019s wooden spoon
\nworn smooth and black, stirs
\nquilted liquid, whispered histories.<\/p>\n
\nthese things: faith, that bitterness
\ntransform to a year of sweet, hope
\nfor a good firm set, and always
\nher steady stirring grip, fearless
\nthrough molten amber.<\/p>\nAuthor biog<\/h3>\n
\nU.A. Fanthorpe<\/p>\n
\nPhilip Gross<\/p>\n