‘Beginner’s Luck’, by UA Fanthorpe

Philip Gross reviews 'Beginner’s Luck', by UA Fanthorpe

by Philip Gross 19th July 2019

What constitutes a voice – that outward-and-audible sign of being who we are? Finding our voice always matters, but it has a special meaning in a poet’s case. The thing that makes the reader say ‘Ah, yes, that’s so-and-so’ in a couple of lines, that’s the writer’s ‘voice’. It’s not simply the sound they make when they speak… nor the distinctive tics and tricks of their technique. It is something subtler – a way of looking/listening, a being at a certain angle to the world, that comes through the words on the page. As with anyone you love – and love is what many readers feel for UA Fanthorpe – it is natural to be curious about how she came to be.