Saddened indeed, to be checking out Bloodaxe for a book, and find that Roddy Lumsden has died.
As well as a quiz genius, most memorably demonstrated on Round Britain Quiz in a formidable partnership with Val McDermid, he was the ever-inventive poet that set the style, and standard, for a generation of imaginative, genre-expanding poets. But he was the one that did it, and led from the front, most effectively.
I met him unexpectedly at a National Poetry Day event on the South Bank some years ago where he astonished me with knowledge of a review I'd published in a magazine. His mind was an amazing compendium of retained detail and creative potential.
His 'ripple' poems, that end in words made up from the consonants in the title word, did what he said and created a compelling half-rhyme effect.
An Older Woman was a sonnet that rhymed the same throughout.
Women in Paintings was a big favourite of mine from 2013 and won the Best Poem category here in the unlamented poetry awards I used to review the year with.
Not All Honey was Best Collection in 2014 and So Glad I'm Me was the same in 2017. He brought a zest and energy to his poems that I simply didn't find anywhere else and that was reflected in the consistently compelling cover illustrations for his Bloodaxe books.
There had been health issues, I know, but such talent and commitment to his art comes rarely in a generation and he had comandeered most of that allocated to his.
David Green
- David Green (Books) is the imprint under which I published booklets of my own poems. The original allocation of ISBN numbers is used up now, though. The 'Collected Poems' are now available as a pdf. The website is now what it has become, often more about music than books and not so often about poems. It will be about whatever suggests itself.
