David Denny

In his third full-length collection, David Denny sings a variety of odes to rescue pups and window spiders, angels and freight trains, Starbucks and the Beatles, film noir actors and post-impressionist painters. In a world besieged by bullies and braggarts, Denny's poetry creates a refuge for the meek, a kind of Zen calm in the eye of the storm. Unique among North American writers, he makes his gentle stand in the heart of the suburban wilderness, excavating the extraordinary within the ordinary, holding up small shiny bits of treasure among the seemingly expansive hodgepodge of invasive junk.

Reminiscent of the American blues tradition, the dozen lyrical laments in this collection remind us that even in an age of moral panic, climate disaster, pandemic, and political corruption, the world's fading beauty still has the power to astound us and drop us to our knees in broken praise.

Imagine a quiet Advent sitting beside a crackling fire preparing for a festive and sacred Twelve Days of Christmas. The authors take you there and beyond. There's something for everyone: young or old, whether you go to church or not. The tone is mystical and down-to-earth. Poetry, illustrations and essays, rituals and blessings, prayers and practical advice, even book, music and movie reviews help you celebrate a soulful season of glad songs, from the dark stillness of Advent through Christmas, the New Year and Epiphany, on to the welcome light of a candle on a cold February night.

The title comes from a news item on a strategically important railway line blocked by a wayward 4x4 car. Did the owner take the claims that this car will go anywhere too literally? - whatever, the line was blocked and the resulting delay felt across the local rail network was yet another opportunity for David to put his flexible fingers to the small key board of his mobile phone and share his personal world of railway travel with the rest of us as he attempted to commute to work in Manchester from Stafford, his home station.