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The Thirteenth Angel | Bloodaxe Books
philip-gross-the-thirteenth-angel

Philip Gross

The Thirteenth Angel

Philip Gross

Publication Date : 17 Nov 2022

ISBN: 9781780376356

Pages: 65
Size :216 x 138mm
Rights: World

Shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize 2022

Poetry Book Society Recommendation

With each new collection, Philip Gross’ poems extend their conversation between the metaphysical and the acutely physical. His sequences in The Thirteenth Angel scan from moment to moment like flickering needles, registering stress patterns in the world around us – ebbs and flows of weather or events, in our own bodies, in the city streets before and after the pandemic, or on the autoroutes of Europe with their undertow of human flight. If there are angels, they are nothing otherworldly, but formed by angles of incidence between real immediate things, sudden moments of clarity that may disturb, calm or exhilarate.

The Thirteenth Angel is Philip Gross’s 27th book of poetry, and his 12th from Bloodaxe. It was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for Winter 2022, and was on the shortlist for the T S Eliot Prize 2022.

'The Thirteenth Angel, like all Philip Gross’s work, fuses the physical and the metaphysical, and lights the profoundest subject matter with shafts of playful humour. He is a poet with exceptional gifts of observation, whether it’s a panoramic view of the earth and its inhabitants or ‘the mutterings of quiet circumstance / under the threshold of attention’.' - Jean Sprackland, Chair of Judges, T S Eliot Prize 2022

‘Mastery is what you would wish for in a 27th collection and it is what you find in Philip Gross’s The Thirteenth Angel, shortlisted for the TS Eliot prize... His easy, fluent ways with form contrast with his conflicted subject matter. He has a questing eye and now, more than ever, writes to make sense of the world in its inexplicable multiplicity.’ ’ – Kate Kellaway, The Observer (Poetry book of the month)

‘Gross presents us hurtling forwards, across the circuit board of the modern city, but making the same old mistakes. What we need is perspective, an opportunity to gain some objectivity, and The Thirteenth Angel offers us this divine intervention [of angels] and the opportunity to step outside of ourselves and to view the world from a fresh angle.' - John Field, T. S. Eliot Prize reviewer

‘Philip Gross has long since found his groove. His 27th collection, The Thirteenth Angel, muses on shadows and light, reflections and absences…’ - Tristram Fane Saunders, The Daily Telegraph, reviewing the T S Eliot Prize shortlist

‘Philip Gross’s The Thirteenth Angel is a book with its finger firmly on the pulse of the sounds of the contemporary world... Gross uses language which is precise and sharp one moment and then veers into a familiar colloquial style the next, which makes him intensely readable.’ – Mona Arshi, PBS Selector, Poetry Book Society Bulletin, Winter 2022

'An unashamedly conceptual and ambitious book... Gross has written a coercively memorable book about the tumults of our time that makes the art of forgetting as enticing as the art of remembering.' - Kit Fan, The Poetry Review, on The Thirteenth Angel

‘Philip Gross has been publishing poetry for more than forty years and this is an experienced collection in all senses of the word: full of literary expertise but also the pleasures and tolls of maturity…. ‘Angel’ means ‘messenger’, and this sense of poetry’s communicative power – at once modest and metaphysical – is the defining feature of this memorable, strange and often beautiful collection.’ - Victoria Moul, The Friday Poem, on The Thirteenth Angel

‘The Thirteenth Angel, his 27th book of poetry, is [a] refreshingly outward-looking collection, comprising a series of long, descriptive/contemplative pieces interleaved with shorter poems. Reading the whole book is a deeply absorbing, enlightening and thought-provoking experience. I greatly enjoyed Gross’s constantly inventive ways with form and language… truly magnificent…’ – Jill Sharp, The High Window

‘The poetry in The Thirteenth Angel… is beautiful, breathtakingly brilliant, visionary, and profound… Anyone with any pretension to being a poet should definitely read this one: inspiring stuff for any reader, poet or poetry-lover alike.’ – Mab Jones, Buzz Magazine

‘This is a magical, lyrical wonder of a collection which will be read again and again…’ - Frank Startup, The School Librarian, on The Thirteenth Angel

 

Philip Gross reads ‘Of Breath (Thirteen Angels’) from The Thirteenth Angel for the T.S. Eliot Prize video readings series.

Philip Gross reads ‘Moon, O’) from The Thirteenth Angel for the T.S. Eliot Prize video readings series.

Philip Gross reads ‘In the Light of the Times’ (‘Springtime in Pandemia’, 4) from The Thirteenth Angel for the T.S. Eliot Prize video readings series.

Philip Gross talks about The Thirteenth Angel for the T.S. Eliot Prize video readings series.

Poetry Society Young Critic Aliyah Begum reviews The Thirteenth Angel for the T.S. Eliot Prize video readings series.

 

Ireland & EU: Click here to order from Books Upstairs in Dublin

USA: Click here to order from Indiebound or Bookshop.org

  

BOOKS BY Philip Gross

A Bright Acoustic

Philip Gross

A Bright Acoustic

Publication Date : 22 Jun 2017

Read More   amazon.co.uk
Between the Islands

Philip Gross

Between the Islands

Publication Date : 10 Mar 2020

Read More   amazon.co.uk
Changes of Address

Philip Gross

Changes of Address

Poems 1980-1998

Publication Date : 27 Jan 2001

Read More   amazon.co.uk
Deep Field

Philip Gross

Deep Field

Publication Date : 24 Nov 2011

Read More   amazon.co.uk

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Related News & Publicity

News & Publicity


Philip Gross; reviews & interviews for The Thirteenth Angel

Philip Gross; reviews & interviews for The Thirteenth Angel

Philip Gross's The Thirteenth Angel reviewed in Observer, The Friday Poem & The Poetry Review; Poetry Society Young Critic video review; poem on Radio 4's Front Row;...

Read More  |  View All

Poetry Events


Philip Gross Readings

Philip Gross Readings

Philip Gross's T S Eliot Prize Reading of 15 January 2023 is now on YouTube, as is his joint online launch for The Thirteenth Angel.

Read More  |  View All

Poetry Events


Launch reading by Philip Gross and Aleš Šteger

Launch reading by Philip Gross and Aleš Šteger

This live-streamed launch reading by Philip Gross and Aleš Šteger is now available to watch online.

Read More  |  View All

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