This Thing of Memory: A Significant Achievement

GWL Publishing is very pleased to announce its latest publication, This Thing of Memory by David Hynes, launching today, 11th November 2014.

This collection of poetry, available as a paperback and e-book from 11th November 2014, contains over seventy poems by Manchester-based poet David Hynes, the theme of which is the commemoration of the First World War.

Hynes offers here an insight into the War’s imprint on our memory, both personal and collective and how this has impacted on the centenary commemorations.

These are not war poems, but they are, nonetheless, poems which focus on that conflict and how it is perceived now. The subject matter ranges from the individual thoughts of someone discovering a long-lost war memento, to an imagined celebrity re-enactment of the 1914 Christmas Truce football match, with the pre-requisite reference to the prospect of facing penalties against the Germans.

From the tragic to the humorous, the original to the vaguely familiar, this volume is not only of interest to anyone who enjoys reading about that era and its traditional poetry, but also to the more modern reader, searching for something a little out of the ordinary.

As the writer of the foreword, BBC Wales broadcaster, Phil Carradice has pointed out: ‘Hynes has an intuitive sense of history. He uses this knowledge to power the poems… in a collection that is profound, sure of itself and, at times, deeply ironic.’

Given my personal background in writing about the literature of the Great War,” says Wendy Lawrance, co-founder of GWL Publishing, “it was an easy decision to bring David and his work into our growing fold of authors. Within these pieces I have been thrilled to find some absolute gems, worthy of inclusion in any anthology about that dreadful, but inspiring time.