Hot on the heels of her previous collection Men Who Feed Pigeons, Selima Hill's Women in Comfortable Shoes is her 21st book of poetry, presenting eleven contrasting but well-fitting sequences of short poems relating to women:
Fishface: A disobedient young girl is sent to a Catholic convent school to give her mother a break.
My Friend Weasel: The 50s. A girls' boarding school where the girls are somehow managing to make new friends.
Susan and Me: On friendship. Two close friends, one of whom, Susan, is heading for a nervous breakdown.
Dolly: Dolly is a duck. The other 29 women are, in their various ways, human.
My Mother with a Beetle in Her Hair: A daughter's passion for swimming – despite of her mother hating every minute.
Fridge: Lorries, geese and fridges speak of death, grief and absence.
My Spanish Swimsuit: A daughter fears her rabbit-trapping father..
The Chauffeur: A pair of bad-tempered sisters, a parrot and a cat.
Girls without Hamsters: An older woman's obsession with a spider-legged young man.
Reduced to a Quivering Jelly: Vera is old, and getting older, but she doesn't seem to care.
Dressed and Sobbing: A woman is surprised to find herself getting older and lazier.
The book is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.
- ISBN10 1780376677
- ISBN13 9781780376677
- Publish Date 22 June 2023
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Bloodaxe Books Ltd
- Format Paperback (UK Trade)
- Pages 256
- Language English
- URL https://bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/product/women-in-comfortable-shoes-1325