James Russell

Body & Soul James Russell

If you have ever had trouble with your boiler's water pressure, or ever wondered if we can sustain a distinction between 'self' and 'soul' or whether incompetent heating engineers could be the agents of Satan then this is the poem for you.



Over forty-eight heptameter sonnets the story is told of two men, as related as chalk and cherries - aesthetic fastidious André and Terry the roughneck glutton. At school they were together, in adulthood apart. Each has fallen foul of the Powers of Darkness, for which there will be a punishment that turns out to be a revelatory one for André's wife Pia. This darkly ebullient narrative poem is both Manichaean and nicely preposterous.