This new pamphlet continues Ian McMillan's linguistic and cultural examination of the trials and tribulations of getting older, and the excitements and sorrows of living in a place marginalised by history. As Pound said, 'Barnsley feels like the thing itself...'
Witty, heartfelt, gimlet-eyed, ambitious and as funny as ever, Ah've Soiled Ma Breeks! is Ian McMillan at his trenchant best.
"A force of nature."
The Guardian
'Come and Sit Over Here With Those Ideas of Yours'
To be honest, the surprise of a poem coming
Is like when you go to see a documentary
Followed by a talk from the director
And it turns out to be a musical.
Or when you go Hey! Somebody’s
Put flamin’ sugar in me tea!
Or when you go Why didn’t you tell mi
Yer could see mi vest through mi shirt?
Each morning on my walk I pass a man in a cap;
We nod and he raises his cap. We pass each other,
Our nods hang in the air like two feathers. The poem,
The moment of the poem, has passed by. Feathers,
Hanging, falling, floating. But not flying. Not flying.
Ian McMillan's many books include a verse autobiography Talking Myself Home, The Richard Matthewman Stories (with Martyn Wiley), and I Found This Shirt. Ian's children's poems are collected in The Very Best of Ian McMillan. His other Smith/Doorstop pamphlet, This Lake Used to be Frozen: Lamps, is also available as a digital audio download. Ian is Barnsley FC's writer-in-residence, tours with The Ian McMillan Orchestra and presents The Verb on BBC Radio 3.