Liz Berry

The China Garden

*'The Republic of Motherhood' Winner of the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem* ‘I crossed the border into the Republic of Motherhood and found it a queendom, a wild queendom.’ In this bold and resonant gathering of poems, Liz Berry turns her distinctive voice to the transformative experience of new motherhood. Her poems sing the body electric, from the joy and anguish of becoming a mother, through its darkest hours to its brightest days. With honesty and unabashed beauty, they bear witness to that most tender of times – when a new life arrives, and everything changes.

The Republic of Motherhood

SHORTLISTED FOR THE FORWARD PRIZE BEST FIRST COLLECTION 2014 *PBS Recommendation 2014* When I became a bird, Lord, nothing could not stop me… In this collection, Liz Berry takes flight: to Wrens Nest, Gosty Hill, Tipton-on-Cut; to the places of home. The poems move from the magic of childhood—bostin fittle at Nanny’s, summers before school—into deeper, darker territory: sensual love, enchanted weddings, and the promise of new life. In Berry’s hands, the ordinary is transformed: her characters shift shapes, her eye is unusual, her ear attuned to the sounds of the Black Country, with "vowels ferrous as nails, consonants / you could lick the coal from." Ablaze with energy, and full of the rich dialect of the West Midlands, this is an incandescent debut from a poet of dazzling talent and verve.

Black Country

Easy Connections

When her mother is hospitalized after suffering a mental breakdown, seventeen-year-old Mel redecorates the house, initiates a neighborhood clean-up, and becomes involved with a rock star.

Inspired by a true story, a beautiful novel-in-verse about a child far from home. From award-winning poet Liz Berry. 'A profound act of witness to a long injustice, and a beautifully crafted conjuring of a life lived as truly as possible' Guardian 'Book of the Day' 'Ground-breaking' Benjamin Zephaniah 'Exquisite' Hannah Lowe, author of The Kids 'Home's not a place, you must believe this, but one who names you and means beloved.' In 1908, Eliza Showell, twelve years old and newly orphaned, boards a ship that will carry her from the slums of the Black Country to rural Nova Scotia. She will never return to Britain or see her family again. She is a Home Child, one of thousands of British children sent to Canada to work as indentured farm labourers and domestic servants. In Nova Scotia, Eliza's world becomes a place where ordinary things are transfigured into treasures - a red ribbon, the feel of a foal's mane, the sound of her name on someone else's lips. With nothing to call her own, the wild beauty of Cape Breton is the only solace Eliza has - until another Home Child, a boy, comes to the farm and changes everything. Inspired by the true story of Liz Berry's great aunt, this spellbinding novel in verse is an exquisite portrait of a girl far from home. 'Vivid, compassionate and makes Eliza Showell's voice heard at last' Financial Times *Best Poetry Books of summer 2023* 'A haunting, deeply compelling narrative' Andrew McMillan, author of physical 'Only Liz Berry could write such raw and staggeringly beautiful poems' Fiona Benson, author of Vertigo & Ghost

from the Forward Prize-winning author of Black Country

The Home Child

Rhianna is living with her grandmother in a small village at the edge of the Perilous Forest, hidden deep in the Summer Country, remote from all the turmoil of post-Roman Britain, where the Bear, King Arthur, is battling rebellious war lords, west and east, to bring order and safety to his people. Rhianna thinks of herself as an ordinary village girls, enjoying life with her animal friends in her paradise Forest, although sometimes she thinks she remembers another life in a great stone hall or is she just dreaming, as her grandmother insists? Rhianna seems to be surrounded by mysteries that her enigmatic grandmother, healer and wise woman of the village will not explain. And what of her absent mother, who never visits? As Rhianna grows older, exploring and learning, she realises that her skills are not ordinary at all and can be very dangerous. Does she really want to be a healer too, or is there something else she must discover? This is the story of a young woman with a secret heritage growing up in a shattered world of good and evil, and the choices she must make.

The Hidden Mage

Reflections on Ullswater

Janey and the Band: Sing the Blues, Janey

Janey 1

Cathy Harlow, a brilliant young painter, has at last given in to the pressures around her and agreed to marry rock musician superstar, Paul Devlin, and to keep his baby. But Cathy is still filled with doubts, for her art is the most important thing in her life and at only seventeen she desperately fears being overwhelmed by Dev and his fame and money. Her relationship with Dev has inflicted wounds, which she can't forgive or forget. She feels threatened too, by Dev's best friend Chris, who sees Cathy and Dev and himself, as bound in a kind of mystical triangle. Cathy's struggle to overcome the stresses of her new life and her attempts to find herself and regain her lost freedom makes an unusual and compelling love story that leads to a moving climax. Set in the vivid worlds of rock music and art, Easy Freedom is a gripping story about redemption and forgiveness, and also has much to say about the real problems faced by a girl with a vocation.

Liz Berry

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