{"title":"Two Rivers Press","description":"\u003chr\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eFounded in 1994 by Reading artist Peter Hay, Two Rivers Press is an informal, not-for-profit collective which has published over 70 titles. It has been described by Keiren Phelan as “one of the most characterful small presses in the country”.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eStrongly rooted in its local community, Two Rivers was the recipient of a Pride of Reading award in 2008 for its contributions to the city's culture, through local groups, including the University and the local Poets' Café. \u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eTwo Rivers is interested in new writing from Reading and the Thames Valley, focusing on local poets, local history, and new editions of classic poems, especially those with a Reading connection: for example, Oscar Wilde’s \u003cem\u003eThe Ballad of Reading Gaol\u003c\/em\u003e. Bold illustration and striking design are important elements of its work, which has been featured in exhibitions in local museums. Poets published by Two Rivers include Adrian Blamires, Jane Draycott, A.F. Harrold, Kate Noakes, Peter Robinson and Susan Utting.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eCreative entrepreneur Suzanne Stallard describes a Two Rivers book as having \"little works of art in your hand\".  \u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003ctable style=\"width: 472px; height: 100px;\" border=\"0\" align=\"center\"\u003e\r\n\u003ctbody\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\r\n\u003ctd style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTwo Rivers Press\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e7 Denmark Road\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReading\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerks\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRG1 5PA\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\r\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\r\n\u003ctd\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTel: +44 (0)118 987 1452\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ehttp:\/\/www.tworiverspress.com\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\r\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\r\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\r\n\u003c\/table\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"cutting-the-quick","title":"Cutting the Quick","description":"After teaching in England for many years, \u003cb\u003eIan House\u003c\/b\u003e taught in Eastern Europe. He lives in Reading. This is his first collection.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Ian House has created a world alive with luminous, existential clarity – playful, often sinister and always a little surreal. As much painter as philosopher, House illuminates his poems with an enormous visual delicacy, particularly strong in the poems set in Russia and Eastern Europe. I gabbled to strangers in the dark \/ as silence piled like snow. His intense sensibility creates a world stilled, flashing with colour, where meaning resides in the strange material beauty of the objective. Throughout the collection, in fragments of flight, sharp moments of solitary colour and sensuous detail, the formless takes on intricate form.\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJane Draycott\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Ian House’s exacting and perceptive sensibility inveigles the reader into the tensions of a formative mid-century Englishness, the bleak underside of Eastern Europe and the lives of painters, vividly conceived through their textures and pigments.\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnne-Marie Fyfe\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow I Dealt with Uncle George’s Glass Eye\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewas to skid from teastain islands on the tablecloth\u003cbr\u003eto canyons in the plaster overhead\u003cbr\u003eor troll it in the gutter with my ally taw\u003cbr\u003eor drop the pale blue yolk and creamy white\u003cbr\u003einto a frying pan. Our laughter\u003cbr\u003emade the birthday candles genuflect.\u003cbr\u003eHis mouth and left eye shone.\u003cbr\u003eThe right was as indifferent as the stars.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHeat\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat afternoon the river blazed.\u003cbr\u003eThe sun clubbed us as we drifted\u003cbr\u003ewords and smiles until\u003cbr\u003ewe stopped to watch a man\u003cbr\u003epull big-finned black-and-yellow fish\u003cbr\u003eout of a tank, flop them on a table,\u003cbr\u003ebash the head with a stone three\u003cbr\u003eor four times, until the thrashing stopped,\u003cbr\u003eand gut them swiftly, bloodily.\u003cbr\u003eI liked the way he worked: mechanical.\u003cbr\u003eHe’d turn to grab another by the tail\u003cbr\u003eand dab his forehead with a small blue cloth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMasha looked at me big-eyed.\u003cbr\u003e‘So be a vegetarian,’ I said.\u003cbr\u003eWe dragged on. Our lips were dry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040929836,"sku":"9781901677416","price":7.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_0697fef4-641f-4f01-a165-3385155edf60.jpeg?v=1752236808"},{"product_id":"a-mutual-friend-poems-for-charles-dickens","title":"A Mutual Friend: Poems for Charles Dickens","description":"This anthology of new poems provides a modern-day response to the life and work of one of our most enduringly popular novelists. Prompted by incidents from his life, the characters and plots of his novels, or their afterlife in other arts and cultural memory, these poems offer a series of intimate glimpses into Dickens’ place in the current poetic imagination.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEdited by award-winning poet and translator Peter Robinson, with an Introduction by Adrian Poole, the book includes contributions from over 50 poets, among them Paul Muldoon, Deryn Rees-Jones, Sean O’Brien, Philip Gross, Carrie Etter, Moniza Alvi, Alison Brackenbury, Fred D’Aguiar, John Fuller, C.K. Stead and John Hegley. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe cover shows an image of the Mechanics Institute, Reading, opened by Dickens himself, now the Great Expectations Hotel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePeter Robinson\u003c\/b\u003e’s many books include \u003ci\u003eSelected Poems\u003c\/i\u003e (Carcanet, 2003), \u003ci\u003eThe Look of Goodbye\u003c\/i\u003e (Shearsman, 2008) and the limited-edition \u003ci\u003eEnglish Nettles and Other Poems\u003c\/i\u003e (Two Rivers, 2010). He recently edited \u003ci\u003eBernard Spencer: Complete Poetry\u003c\/i\u003e (Bloodaxe, 2011), one of Dannie Abse’s top 10 20th-century poetry collections in the \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eReading Poetry: An Anthology\u003c\/i\u003e (Two Rivers, 2011). He is currently Professor of English and American Literature at the University of Reading. ","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53675022549377,"sku":"9781901677782","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_22878b5d-db2f-4b68-81d2-793272f09183.jpeg?v=1752237751"},{"product_id":"hearthstone","title":"Hearthstone","description":"Blacksmith poet, \u003cb\u003eJoseph Butler\u003c\/b\u003e, was born in Oxford in 1962. He has earned his living as a farmer, teacher, and boatbuilder as well as blacksmithing. These poems grew out of working with a family of 3 generations of blacksmiths in an Oxfordshire forge, they are linked up with the Greek myth of \u003ci\u003eHera\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eHephaistos\u003c\/i\u003e, the crippled god of fire and metalworking, and patron of craftsmen, and bound up with his own family drama. This is his first, exhilarating poetry collection. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Joseph Butler’s first full collection Hearthstone is stunning. It keeps to its themes of violence and transformation, both human and material, with an unbending clarity of vision and linguistic exactness. These poems are all crafted things, with the stalwartness and grace of perfect ironwork. They mark without question the appearance of a major talent.\"\u003c\/i\u003e — Bernard O’Donoghue\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"A striking new talent, he bring the skills of is craftsmanship to his poems. In just a few words he unlocks a new world. The reader inhales its atmosphere…\"\u003c\/i\u003e — Rachel Campbell-Johnston \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrom \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHera\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe was to have been a gift\u003cbr\u003eto my seeker-after-trifles,\u003cbr\u003eto the glad-eyed lord-and-master\u003cbr\u003ein whose loving I once shone:\u003cbr\u003ea son to curb his wandering,\u003cbr\u003ea baby boy to still his lust;\u003cbr\u003ewhen all he craved was conquest and the chase.\u003cbr\u003eSo maybe he was ill-starred from the start.\u003cbr\u003eMaybe it was hope that skewed his shaping.\u003cbr\u003eBut all these months of pregnancy I dared to dream;\u003cbr\u003egrew fat with dreaming, full of it.\u003cbr\u003eI came to term and squatted, sweated,\u003cbr\u003ethrust him out – my talisman,\u003cbr\u003ethe being who’d absorbed me for so long.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eShoeing shed\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat evening\u003cbr\u003eI lit a candle in the shoeing shed,\u003cbr\u003ein the place\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ehe’d stooped and sweated,\u003cbr\u003elifted hooves\u003cbr\u003eto brand the horn with slippery steel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt burned all night,\u003cbr\u003epuddled wax\u003cbr\u003ein the channels of the cobbled floor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was summer\u003cbr\u003eand the white froth of nettle\u003cbr\u003eflowers craned in at the window;\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ecolumbine and vetch\u003cbr\u003etrailed their stems\u003cbr\u003ethe length of the metal rack.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the cemetery\u003cbr\u003ethe swallows skirled and feinted\u003cbr\u003ethrough the cypress shelter-belt.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe clod I tossed into the grave\u003cbr\u003ewas warm, husked with sunlight.\u003cbr\u003eIt shattered on the coffin lid.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040930728,"sku":"9781901677410","price":9.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_877b93cd-264e-4a4f-9198-eacb1e274482.jpeg?v=1752237433"},{"product_id":"each-broken-object","title":"Each Broken Object","description":"\u003ci\u003e\"Wonderful\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePoetry Quarterly Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Full of myth and mystery\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePoetry Wales\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Wry, fresh, startling\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePlanet\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"\u003cb\u003eDavid Greenslade’s\u003c\/b\u003e object poems work where edges become visible, local and urgent. He pays tribute to the gift exchange genre of Welsh poetry – of desire, display, exchange and alliance – also beauty and fantasy in which these new object poems are so rich. Very very exciting.\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAndrew Duncan, poet and editor of \u003ci\u003eAngel Exhaust\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"I am fascinated by David Greenslade’s poetic phenomenology and believe it is of the utmost relevance in today’s world where the “thinging of the thing” (as Heidegger put it) has slipped into forgetfulness.\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRichard Kearney, author \u003ci\u003eWake of the Imagination.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"William Carlos Williams said “No ideas but in things” and I was reminded of this while reading about the things which this book is made. I especially enjoy its sounds, rhythms and subtle rhymes. 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Thousand of people use the crossroads at Jackson’s Corner without knowing that there’s running water a few feet down. But where does it start? Is it a natural stream or man-made? What is it for? What was it called when the Abbey was still functioning?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis unique and secretive waterway has been hurrying through and under Reading for many centuries. \u003cb\u003eAdam Sowan\u003c\/b\u003e has written the fullest account yet of the Brook’s topography, history, archaeology and mythology; \u003cb\u003eSally Castle’s\u003c\/b\u003e map shows, for the first time, all the places where you can follow its banks; and \u003cb\u003ePeter Hay’s\u003c\/b\u003e illustrations evoke its unique character.","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040931152,"sku":"9781901677348","price":4.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_c67655b6-3fee-4689-9cc2-9877cfb63d01.jpeg?v=1752236464"},{"product_id":"kubla-khan","title":"Kubla Khan","description":"\u003ci\u003eIn Xanadu did Kubla Khan \u003cbr\u003eA stately pleasure-dome decree:\u003cbr\u003eWhere Alph, the sacred river, ran \u003cbr\u003eThrough caverns measureless to man\u003cbr\u003eDown to a sunless sea.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA new and original edition of Coleridge’s famous poem, brought to life with Peter Hay’s printing and Pip Hall’s hand-lettering – this ‘miracle of rare device’, these ‘sinuous rills’.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“For Coleridge, poetry was the ‘balance of reconciliation of oppositive or discordant qualities’. In \u003cb\u003eKubla Khan\u003c\/b\u003e we hear a ‘mingled pleasure’: sun and ice, garden and wild, ‘demon lover’ , peace and war.  The Khan himself is both enlightened ruler and despot. The river Alph runs from birth to death, ‘ceaseless tumult’ to ‘lifeless ocean’, alpha to omega.”\u003c\/i\u003e — Adrian Blamires\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040931360,"sku":"9781901677393","price":4.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_2d0d9e5e-eedf-48ed-8499-ac1db179ae3e.jpeg?v=1752236430"},{"product_id":"flood","title":"Flood","description":"\"A.F.Harrold's poems are so immediately engaging and amusing that there is a danger of missing their depths. They are verbally scrupulous, exact and minutely observant. These poems are the real thing: serious about being human and being at home in the world.\"\u003cbr\u003eBernard O'Donoghue\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The poems in this collection wear their scholarship lightly, often with a formal dexterity that is deeply satisfying. AF Harrold doesn't censor his extraordinary and generous imagination; he enters the territory between this world and whatever comes after it, writing so clearly and tenderly about death, memory and love that I felt both bruised and stroked. Of course he cannot drive - and makes the most eloquent and delightful case for the poet as passenger: he is too busy observing, taking notes, with accuracy and compassion, never missing a trick, and very much enjoying the ride.\"\u003cbr\u003eCatherine Smith\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The title poem of A.F. Harrold’s second collection presents with acute attention to detail the things most do not think of: the fate of fish after a flood, for instance, or the meaning behind a broken watch. Harrold is a recognised stand-up poet, but although still amusing at times, this collection shows less reliance on humour than in his performances.  He plays witness to a mix of the comedic and the tragic, perhaps epitomized in a poem where the he expresses his discontent with receiving impersonal letters on Valentine’s Day... ‘Knot’ presents a similarly familiar setting, a party in which there are ‘little knots of memory and people – too sober to meet strangers, too drunk to let things be’.  Most of these poems are written in free verse, with plenty of rhythm; but another stand-out poem, ‘Keep on Keeping On’, is the only one which actively bridges the gap between page and stage poetry.  Another favourite is ‘Grace’, the last in a sequence of love poems, which is a touching account of lost love through the image of a fingertip. The collection is observant, thoughtful and imaginative, the perfect page companion to A.F. Harrold’s stage performances.\"\u003cbr\u003eCarmina Masoliver-Marlow, \u003ci\u003eHand+Star\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040931396,"sku":"9781901677706","price":8.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_0435b6a0-a0f4-49bd-a77e-9cb375defeb8.jpeg?v=1752237105"},{"product_id":"a-mark-of-affection","title":"A Mark of Affection","description":"In the centre of Reading stands a prominent stone obelisk supporting three bright lamps. It was built in 1804 at the expense of Edward Simeon, a director of the Bank of England, and designed by the great locally-born architect \u003cb\u003eJohn Soane\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt caused controversy and attracted criticism at first, and stood neglected and unlit in scruffy surroundings for many years, but after a full restoration it once again stands proudly and usefully in a worthy setting. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAdam Sowan’s fifth local book traces the origins of the obelisk, the development of its design, and changes to its structure and surroundings over the last 200 years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt also chronicles Soane’s other Reading projects – some mooted, some built, some demolished and some mythical. The architect’s own drawings are complemented by newspaper photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries.","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040931444,"sku":"9781901677515","price":5.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_3c6359b9-a347-45a5-b8b8-55fb34c4fc8b.jpeg?v=1752236502"},{"product_id":"sumer-is-icumen-in","title":"Sumer is Icumen in","description":" This famous medieval round is reproduced here with exquisite black and white illustrations. Written about 1250, possibly by the monks of Reading Abbey, where the manuscript was located, \u003ci\u003eSumer is Icumen in\u003c\/i\u003e is famous for its cheerful complexity, and for providing instructions on how it should be sung.  The book contains a full-colour facsimile of the original manuscript and an explanatory text by Chaucer scholar Phillipa Hardman of Reading University. Sally Castle’s lively illustrations exactly portray the celebration of spring (not summer – read it to find out why) which is depicted in both words and music. For those who want to try singing it, there’s a modern version of the music as well. ","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":55515814691201,"sku":"9781915048370","price":7.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_27ceb2c1-c7ce-4722-b2c8-d97ed59c78b3.jpeg?v=1752236502"},{"product_id":"charms-against-jackals-ten-years-of-two-rivers-press","title":"Charms Against Jackals: Ten Years of Two Rivers Press","description":"\u003cb\u003eTwo Rivers Press 1994-2004\u003c\/b\u003e: a celebration in words and images from the friends and associates of the press, with a special tribute to its founder, Reading artist \u003cb\u003ePeter Hay\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eextract from the Foreword\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eTwo Rivers Press is a Reading production, the brainchild of \u003cb\u003ePeter Hay\u003c\/b\u003e, one of the town’s most creative champions. Born in 1951, Pete grew up in Stockport and came to Reading in 1971 to study fine art at the university. The Press grew out of Pete’s delight in this underloved town and its sacred spaces. In Adam Sowan’s words: Pete believed in Reading, and his enthusiastic publication of local books and maps can be seen as part of a quiet campaign that a number of us have been waging for years – to prove that the town exists, lives, happens, and is by no means to be confused with Anywhere.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGradually, and with great success, two Rivers meandered away from its territorial roots and into more purely artistic arenas. National poetry competitions and zealous marketing brought published poets, writers, artists knocking on Pete’s door from all over the land, and with them came literary acclaim and TLS reviews. Artists who had barely heard of Reading thus keyed in obliquely to the strange, defiant passions that the town arouses, and took Pete’s vision to a discerning audience nationwide. Yet much of the best-selling work is still Reading-based; it is appropriate indeed that one of Pete’s last publications was Adam Sowan’s The Holy Brook, and Idiosyncratic and delightful survey of the town’s third and least-known waterway.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Spill\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eto the memory of Pete Hay\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWords, lose in the world,\u003cbr\u003espill from fingertip to fingertip,\u003cbr\u003etouch lip after lip.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLip after lip touches\u003cbr\u003ewhile words spilled from finger-tips\u003cbr\u003eloosen the world.\u003c\/i\u003e\t\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHELEN DUNMORE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eI remember the wonderful hot weekend, years ago, when a peaceful procession of concerned Reading people - musicians, performers, poets, artists, residents of Newtown, all occupations, all ages, made their way along the towpath and over the Horseshoe Bridge in celebration of its saving from demolition, for which they had campaigned with passion. When I think of Reading, in my mind I see the place where two rivers meet, and across from Kennetmouth, on the far side of the Thames, the heron that almost always seemed to be there, waiting.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePam Simpson\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e[Peter Hay’s] illustrated editions of earlier poems, such as \u003ci\u003eCat Jeoffry, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, The Drunken Boat\u003c\/i\u003e and some little songs from Shakespeare, were cleverly chosen. Books such as these come with built-in marketing and saw the emergence of a Two Rivers house style. Anyone can publish a book these days but it takes genius to sell it, and although Two Rivers struggle in the market-place like most small presses, Peter’s busy determination to sell his books marked him out as all-round publisher as well as talented editor.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKeiren Phelan\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53675022254465,"sku":"9781901677379","price":5.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_b24b76fd-20e9-4d97-9277-2cdad3faf37a.jpeg?v=1752236477"},{"product_id":"the-agisters-experiment","title":"The Agisters Experiment","description":"Displaying a love of the patterns and cadences of the English language, this first collection by Gill Learner explores and examines crafts, technologies, painting and music. It also reflects on growing up and motherhood, and imaginatively retells legends, myths and superstitions. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"These diverse, amusing, sometimes chilling, entirely honest poems speak from the heart to the heart. Many are workbased and hold that undertow of regret for things past, good people, lives undervalued, probably gone for ever. There is anger here and always an unwavering belief in and respect for working people. This is poetry to savour.\"\u003cbr\u003eMavis Cheek\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What is striking about \u003ci\u003eThe Agister’s Experiment\u003c\/i\u003e is the way poems lift off from a base of precise knowledge into the imagination, the life or work of an individual...\"\u003cbr\u003eMyra Schneider\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eGill Learner\u003c\/b\u003e retired from teaching Printing Studies at Berkshire School of Art \u0026amp; Design in 1999 with the intention of writing. In October 2000 she won a limerick competition on the theme of time in \u003ci\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/i\u003e with the entry: “It will pass, it can heal, it may fly; \/ ours to stall for, or play for, or buy. \/ we can save, serve or kill it; \/ waster, mark, call or kill it. \/ But it’s up at the moment we die.” Since then, her poetry has been published in \u003ci\u003ePoetry News\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAcumen\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEnvoi\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eOrbis\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSmiths Knoll\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTears in the Fence\u003c\/i\u003e, and read on Radio 3. She won the Hamish Canham Prize in 2008. In 2009 she became one of Shetland Library’s ‘Bards in the bog’, had a poem accepted for the Polesworth Poetry Trail in north Warwickshire, and was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, highly commended at the Petra Kenney competition, and named a finalist in the Aesthetica Creative Works competition.","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53675022123393,"sku":"9781901677713","price":8.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_2494095a-ea2c-4879-8b0f-2e2b2534ba08.jpeg?v=1752237093"},{"product_id":"the-reading-quiz-book","title":"The Reading Quiz Book","description":"Local historian Adam Sowan has explored all that the town of Reading has to offer, and presents here a witty, entertaining and challenging set of questions to stimulate the reader’s curiosity and develop a deeper acquaintance with this much-maligned town. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe book includes 80 questions, with detailed and informative answers, along with 40 photographs to identify.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAdam Sowan\u003c\/b\u003e’s previous books about Reading, all published by Two Rivers Press, include \u003ci\u003eA Much-Maligned Town: Opinions of Reading 1126-2008\u003c\/i\u003e (2008), \u003ci\u003eA Mark of Affection: The Soane Obelisk in Reading\u003c\/i\u003e (2007), \u003ci\u003eThe Holy Brook\u003c\/i\u003e (2003), \u003ci\u003eAbattoirs Road to Zinzan Street: Reading’s streets and their names\u003c\/i\u003e (2004). He also edited \u003ci\u003eJohn Man: The Stranger in Reading\u003c\/i\u003e, published by Two Rivers Press in 2006. ","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040932208,"sku":"9781901677768","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_2f76aa8a-45ec-4147-8e07-ba59b1edbe7e.jpeg?v=1752236605"},{"product_id":"reading-poetry-an-anthology","title":"Reading Poetry: An Anthology","description":"In recognition of the town’s long history and rich heritage, the poems gathered in this anthology celebrate Reading’s connections with poetry, both past and present.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWritten by poets who live or have lived in the area, many of the poems are set in Reading and the Thames Valley and make reference to poems and writers associated with the town over the years: Coleridge in flight from his university debts, Rimbaud’s association with a language school in King’s Road, Oscar Wilde’s ‘Ballad of Reading Gaol’, Jane Austen’s only formal schooling, and Dickens’s many visits to the town.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe anthology is also an essential introduction to reading poetry. Each poet has provided his or her own account of their relation to the anthology’s theme, their inspiration, their muse. The poets represented are Paul Bavister, Adrian Blamires, David Cooke, Jane Draycott, Claire Dyer, John Froy, A.F. Harrold, Ian House, Wendy Klein, Gill Learner, Allison McVety, Kate Noakes, Victoria Pugh, Peter Robinson, Lesley Saunders, Susan Utting, and Jean Watkins. Specially commissioned illustrations from Sally Castle round off this refreshingly approachable collection.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePeter Robinson\u003c\/b\u003e’s many books include \u003ci\u003eSelected Poems\u003c\/i\u003e (Carcanet, 2003), \u003ci\u003eThe Look of Goodbye\u003c\/i\u003e (Shearsman, 2008) and \u003ci\u003eEnglish Nettles\u003c\/i\u003e (Two Rivers Press, 2010). He was awarded the John Florio prize for \u003ci\u003eThe Greener Meadow: Selected Poems of Luciano Erba\u003c\/i\u003e (2007). He is currently Professor of English and American Literature at the University of Reading.","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040932296,"sku":"9781901677720","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_e4cc7358-c640-4a4c-817a-21ad4bdbf6e7.jpeg?v=1752237875"},{"product_id":"the-stranger-in-reading","title":"The Stranger in Reading","description":"\u003ci\u003e“Taking the next turning to the left, I proceeded along a wide handsome street, leading, as I was told, to Bath …but I could not help remarking a custom, which, however odd it may appear to strangers, is almost universally adopted here:  I mean, that of having a pretty little dunghill before each house, composed of road dirt, ashes, straw, dung, turnip parings, cabbage leaves, \u0026amp;c. \u0026amp;c. but these last are not so plentiful as might be wished, owing to some all-devouring hogs, who are continually plundering these precious compounds of the greater part of their beauty.  It is true that by express orders of the Paving Committee, hogs are forbid taking an airing in the streets, but this, like many other salutary measures, is wholly neglected, and the consequence is, the streets are not only much cleaner than they ought to be, in the opinion of the people, if we may judge from the pains they take to make them otherwise; but every housekeeper is thereby deprived of the pleasure of imbibing the effluvia of rotten vegetables.”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e is a lively, witty eye-witness account of Georgian Reading by \u003cb\u003eJohn Man\u003c\/b\u003e, a retired schoolmaster and the town's second historian.  Man had strong views on everything from politics, religion and the theatre to umbrellas, beer and beggars, and when the book first appeared (anonymously) in 1810 it ruffled not a few local feathers.  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This new edition retains the original Peter Hay illustrations, using his rubber stamps and linocuts, and adds Tom Woodman’s informative commentary to place \u003ci\u003eCat Jeoffry\u003c\/i\u003e in the context of Smart’s life and works.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eChristopher Smart\u003c\/b\u003e (1722-1771) was born in Shipbourne, Kent. A Cambridge graduate, he spent over ten years of his life in mental institutions, suffering from a form of religious hysteria. In 1936 W.B. Yeats singled out Smart’s \u003ci\u003eA Song to David\u003c\/i\u003e in the introduction to \u003ci\u003eThe Oxford Book of Modern Verse\u003c\/i\u003e as the inaugural poem of the Romantic period; Dante Gabriel Rossetti pronounced it “the only accomplished poem of the last century”. Since then, his \u003ci\u003eJubilate Agno\u003c\/i\u003e has captured the interest of modern poets including Allen Ginsberg, Alec Hope, John Heath-Stubbs, Peter Porter, Jeremy Reed and Wendy Cope.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eFor I will consider my cat Jeoffry.\u003cbr\u003eFor he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him.\u003cbr\u003eFor at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships him in his way.\u003cbr\u003eFor this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.\u003cbr\u003e...\u003cbr\u003eFor first he looks upon his fore-paws to see if they are clean.\u003cbr\u003eFor secondly he kicks up behind to clear away there.\u003cbr\u003eFor thirdly he works it upon stretch with the fore paws extended.\u003cbr\u003eFor fourthly he sharpens his paws by wood.\u003cbr\u003eFor fifthly he washes himself.\u003cbr\u003eFor sixthly he rolls upon wash.\u003cbr\u003eFor seventhly he fleas himself, that he may not be interrupted upon the beat.\u003cbr\u003eFor eighthly he rubs himself against a post.\u003cbr\u003eFor ninthly he looks up for his instructions.\u003cbr\u003eFor tenthly he goes in search of food.\u003cbr\u003e...\u003cbr\u003eFor he counteract the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eFor he will not do destruction, if he is well fed, neither will he spit without provocation.\u003cbr\u003eFor he purrs in thankfulness, when God tells him he's a good cat.\u003cbr\u003e...\u003cbr\u003eFor every house is incompleat without him and a blessing is lacking in the spirit.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA wonderful present for cat lovers.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040933200,"sku":"9781901677744","price":7.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_be7dcf0a-ecb0-4c27-86cb-0892593f0cf6.jpeg?v=1752236921"},{"product_id":"the-ballad-of-reading-gaol","title":"The Ballad of Reading Gaol","description":"\u003ci\u003eYet each man kills the thing he loves,\u003cbr\u003eBy each let this be heard,\u003cbr\u003eSome do it with a bitter look,\u003cbr\u003eSome with a flattering word,\u003cbr\u003eThe coward does it with a kiss,\u003cbr\u003eThe brave man with a sword!\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn May of 1895, the century’s most dazzling man of letters was sentenced to two years with hard labour for ‘acts of gross indecency with another male person.’ On his release he moved to France, where he wrote \u003ci\u003eThe Ballad of Reading Gaol\u003c\/i\u003e: an anguished plea for prison reform, and a passionate expression of sympathy for his fellow prisoners, those ‘souls in pain’.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOscar Wilde’s \u003ci\u003eThe Ballad of Reading Gaol\u003c\/i\u003e was a success from its first publication, and to this day some of its lines are among the most famous in the English language. 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These poems shimmy in the mind long after closing the cover.\"\u003cbr\u003eSamantha Wynne-Rhydderch\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\"Elegiac and sensuous, pressing and haunting in their almost hallucinatory narrative detail, the poems in \u003cem\u003eFair’s Fair\u003c\/em\u003e reveal Susan Utting’s capacity to move us at its most powerful yet – a new collection of great skill and lucid tenderness.\"\u003cbr\u003eJane Draycott  \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSusan Utting\u003c\/strong\u003e’s second collection, \u003cem\u003eHouses Without Walls\u003c\/em\u003e (Two Rivers Press, 2006), was featured in the \u003cem\u003eIndependent on Sunday\u003c\/em\u003e, with a poem included in the Best Single Poem category of \u003cem\u003eThe Forward Book of Poetry 2007\u003c\/em\u003e. Her first full collection, \u003cem\u003eStriptease\u003c\/em\u003e, was published in 2001 by Smith\/Doorstop. Susan is the founder of Reading’s Poets’ Café, and has read her poetry at arts festivals including Edinburgh, StAnza, Ledbury and Aldeburgh.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1041180864,"sku":"9781901677805","price":7.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/two_rivers_-_fair_s_fair_draft.jpeg?v=1752236870"},{"product_id":"the-beholder","title":"The Beholder","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe poems in \u003cem\u003eThe Beholder\u003c\/em\u003e capture those fleeting moments between people and the world around them, distilling them without judgement or resolution. 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Together the book embraces a variety of architectural styles: medieval gothic, classical, Victorian neo-gothic and neo-Norman, Moorish-Byzantine and Islamic, plus the work of architects like Waterhouse, Bodley and Comper.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAdam Sowan\u003c\/strong\u003e’s previous books about Reading, all published by Two Rivers Press, include \u003cem\u003eThe Reading Quiz Book\u003c\/em\u003e (2011), \u003cem\u003eA Much-Maligned Town: Opinions of Reading 1126-2008\u003c\/em\u003e (2008), \u003cem\u003eA Mark of Affection: The Soane Obelisk in Reading\u003c\/em\u003e (2007), \u003cem\u003eThe Holy Brook\u003c\/em\u003e (2003) and \u003cem\u003eAbattoirs Road to Zinzan Street: Reading’s streets and their names\u003c\/em\u003e (2004).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53675015143809,"sku":"9781901677843","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/two_rivers_-_believing_in_reading.jpeg?v=1752237726"},{"product_id":"recreation-ground","title":"Recreation Ground","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTom Phillips’ first full-length collection ranges across Eastern Europe and Australia to the more familiar climes of the Home Counties and his own back garden in Bristol. From these various vantage points, unlikely connections emerge: between chance meetings and ‘big history’, family stories and the state we’re in.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In Tom Phillips’ work, the world is unsettlingly close, whether the poem is set in his home town or at the other end of Europe. Other times, too, are alongside in the present, and echoes of conflict or loss disturb the surfaces of life, which are nonetheless carefully, caringly observed in these intelligent and watchful poems.” \u003cbr\u003ePhilip Gross\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The landscape of Tom Phillips’ poetry is an ‘unexpected geography’... [in] which we are reawakened to recognition that meaning amid a world of war and confusion is to be discovered in the unchanging nature of small things.” \u003cbr\u003eIan Brinton, Carcanet poet\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTom Phillips\u003c\/strong\u003e was born in Buckinghamshire in 1964, and now lives in Bristol. 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An open annual meeting features guest lecturers on history and gardening subjects.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1041247120,"sku":"9781901677867","price":5.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/two_rivers_-_caversham_court_gardens.jpeg?v=1752236496"},{"product_id":"the-point-of-inconvenience","title":"The Point of Inconvenience","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA.F. Harrold’s new collection is a sequence detailing the illness and death of his mother, but its tone is anything but elegiac. Addressed to the patient, both present and absent, the poems are frank, unflinching and honest. There is love here, but also frustration, bewilderment, confusion and grief. Together the poems explore the spaces where despair, boredom and exhaustion meet, and at their heart describe the difficulty of dying.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Profoundly moving, utterly uncompromising, the poems... are alive to the absurdities and contradictions that underwrite human tragedies.”\u003cbr\u003eHelen Mort\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“He enters the territory between this world and whatever comes after it, writing so clearly and tenderly about death, memory and love...” \u003cbr\u003eCatherine Smith\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“He has Larkin’s ability to evoke and transcend mundane reality.”\u003cbr\u003eDavid Cooke, \u003cem\u003eThe North\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA.F. Harrold\u003c\/strong\u003e was born in 1975. 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He lives in Reading.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1041249036,"sku":"9781901677904","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/two_rivers_-_the_point_of_inconvenience.jpeg?v=1752237294"},{"product_id":"eleven-rooms","title":"Eleven Rooms","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eEleven Rooms\u003c\/em\u003e, Claire Dyer’s first collection, explores moments in life at its most transient: a girl on the back of a boy’s motorbike, growing up too fast; the flex and flux of relationships; and what death takes from us. Together the poems tell of an intimate quest for equilibrium in a world constantly tilting, but also a celebration of the journey and the adventures it brings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“There’s a clarity about Claire Dyer’s poems that makes them immediately attractive: their surfaces gleam and glitter. 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She is a Fellow of the Medical Artists Association, and lives in Reading.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1041266280,"sku":"9781901677874","price":12.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/two_rivers_-_an_artist_s_year_resized.jpeg?v=1752238041"},{"product_id":"foreigners-drunks-babies-eleven-stories","title":"Foreigners, Drunks \u0026 Babies: Eleven Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBetter known for his award-winning poetry, here Peter Robinson turns his vividly perceptive gaze to the art of the short story, in this truly globe-trotting collection. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe travel through the West of Ireland with a couple on the brink; we spy on the shadowy life of a Cold War warrior; we follow an Italian girl visiting her boyfriend in hospital. There is hand-to-hand fighting in a Soviet classroom, a girl’s suicide in Japan, and an investigation into a seemingly victimless crime.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePeter Robinson\u003c\/strong\u003e was born in Salford and grew up mainly in Liverpool. As a poet, he has won the Cheltenham Prize and the John Florio Prize; his books include \u003cem\u003eSelected Poems\u003c\/em\u003e (Carcanet, 2003) and \u003cem\u003eThe Returning Sky\u003c\/em\u003e (Shearsman, 2012), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. He is the editor of the Two Rivers Press anthologies \u003cem\u003eA Mutual Friend: Poems for Charles Dickens\u003c\/em\u003e (2012) and \u003cem\u003eReading Poetry\u003c\/em\u003e (2011). He teaches English and American Literature at the University of Reading.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis book is also available as a eBook. Buy it from Amazon \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Foreigners-Drunks-Babies-Eleven-Stories-ebook\/dp\/B00GR5JLCU\/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text\u0026amp;ie=UTF8\u0026amp;qid=1426609492\u0026amp;sr=1-1\u0026amp;keywords=Foreigners%2C+Drunks+and+Babies\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Two Rivers Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":1041270312,"sku":"9781901677935","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/two_rivers_-_foreigners_drunks_resized.jpeg?v=1752237280"},{"product_id":"scrimshaw","title":"Scrimshaw","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eScrimshaw\u003c\/em\u003e, Jean Watkins’ first collection, is named after the carvings made on whale tusks, bones or shells by 19th century sailors and brought home as souvenirs. In turn, her poems explore the creativity of artists and craftsmen throughout human history, as well as benign or savage aspects of the natural world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Precise and subtle in their music, the narratives in Scrimshaw build a rich and delicate world of personal feeling and history through the most acute kind of observation.”\u003cbr\u003eJane Draycott\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Whether Watkins is championing the artisan (the workers of wood, glass and clay), shining a light on the smallness of the everyday, or turning her keen eye on the natural world, she does so with absolute skill and a deft balance of idea and language. The poems in\u003cem\u003e Scrimshaw\u003c\/em\u003e are never overplayed: their soft touch aches with absence; they sing with truth and fire.” \u003cbr\u003eAllison McVety\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJean Watkins\u003c\/strong\u003e was born in West Yorkshire and now lives in Reading. 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