📖 Book Review ~ Ten Poems about Weather from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press 
March 2025

Thanks to the publisher for the copy of this pamphlet 

The weather is always a good topic of conversation, especially if we don’t know the other person very well. Wherever we are on the planet we can’t help noticing when it’s too hot or too cold or something in between.

In these ten poems we encounter everything from drought to a hurricane, taking in fog, snow and spring sunshine on the way. It goes without saying that there is also more than enough rain. The poems don’t merely describe weather; they also capture how it can induce in us particular feelings and states of mind. In one poem, rain creates a very particular atmosphere:


“I love the privacy of rain,
the way it makes things happen
on verandahs, under canopies
or in the shelter of trees…”

from ‘Privacy of rain’ by Helen Dunmore

The poems are as varied as weather itself, taking us through the changing seasons and relishing the inevitable surprises that come along the way.

Edited by poet Graham Mort who takes pleasure in the ever-changing skies of England’s North-West.

Poems by Emily Brontë, John Clare, Gillian Clarke, Helen Dunmore, Norman MacCaig, Graham Mort, GracecNicholls, Sheenagh Pugh, Neil Rollinson and Annette Volfing.

Cover illustration by Melissa Lhoirit.

📖 My Review ..

Weather is always a favourite topic of conversation. We seem to delight in the perverse nature of our British climate and have learned to be thankful that we don’t get the violent extremes so often seen in other parts of the world. However, with global climate changes, our own weather is becoming increasingly more unpredictable, with hotter summers and wetter winters, and with erratic unseasonal highs and lows of temperature.

This fine collection of ten poems about weather is a diverse and entertaining look at the vagaries of climate and our different perspectives on all forms of weather. They conjure warm days, cold days, being caught in the rain days, buffeted by wind, closed off by fog or despairing in drought. We have snow and thaw and the cottonwool fluffiness of clouds. 

There is  something quite special about being in the rain :

From Privacy of rain by Helen Dunmore

“ I love the privacy of rain

The way it makes things happen

on verandas, under canopies

or in the shelter of trees..”

Emily Brontë keeps us Spellbound in this beautiful verse :

 “ The night is darkening round me,

The wild winds coldly blow;

But a tyrant spell has bound me

And I cannot, cannot go..”

 

Beautifully produced to a high standard and perfectly capturing all our thoughts, feelings and the myriad emotions which we express collectively about the weather, this lovely pamphlet is an ideal gift instead of a card for anyone who looks out of the window muttering, not rain....again ! 

About the Publisher 

Candlestick Press is a small, independent press publishing sumptuously produced poetry pamphlets that serve as a wonderful alternative to a greetings card, with matching envelopes and bookmarks left blank for your message. Their subjects include Mountains, Clouds, Walking, Birds, Wine and Happiness. Candlestick Press pamphlets are stocked by chain and independent bookshops, galleries and garden centres nationwide and available to order online.

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