I picked up the "Next Generation" pamphlet recently. Hannah's one of 20 tips for the top. After reading a poem or 2 of hers you know what the rest of the book's going to be like so browse before you buy. Long ago I thought that
When Wendy Cope does the same kind of stuff she does it better, and does other things besides. Connie Bensley ("Choosing to be a Swan") is funnier. Even newcomers like Eleanor Brown ("Maiden Speech") are better in places. So why, even allowing for the usual hype, did Poetry Review call Hannah "A GENIUS"? ...A wider range of subject matter, a smaller selection of poems and some sharper lines would all have helped to improve the book.
Seeing the 20 blurbs in the pamphlet one after the other was too much for me.
- "It is difficult to pin down Nick Drake's poetry, which makes his book... all the more pleasurable to read"
- "There's rarely any doubt about what Sophie Hannah means in any of her poems. She is a communicator..."
- "... poems that remind us why memory is such an important human faculty"
- "Many of the poems are deceptively short"
etc.