Original artwork by Andrew Foley
When Grandma heard thunder’s first throaty murmur
She threw down her duster, or let dishes clatter in the sink,
grabbed Dad’s hand and ran to the foot of the stairs.
Protected from the storm by a windowless door
she sang him Blue Moon in a trembling voice,
trying to drown the dark rumble,
holding him like a comfort blanket
Andrew Forster’s first collection confronts wideranging themes with clarity and artistry. In Fear of Thunder the reader meets a diverse selection of characters and situations: the young girl in a cul-de-sac who dreams she is a horse; a father unable to shake a childhood fear; the air force pilot who refuses to fly. Yet whether Forster is conjuring up a horse-whisperer hounded for his gifts or thinking about the poet Elizabeth Bishop taking stock in Carolina, he is at all times asking us to consider our common experiences.
From the industrial South Yorkshire of the poet’s childhood to his adopted home of rural Scotland, via imaginative leaps to Spain, America, Germany and eighteenth-century rural England, these poems look at what makes us who we are.
Fear of Thunder was shortlisted for the 2008 Forward Prize best first collection.
‘A notable Newcomer’ — the Scotsman
‘Fear of Thunder is a fine collection filled with poems which are both resonant and delicate. Forster is a wonderful storyteller and his poems are populated with family and memoir, characters from many walks of life. Great poets are seasoned and annealed by time and we will gladly look forward to more of Forster.’
— Daniel Thomas Moran, in Poetry Salzburg Review (Number 13)
‘In his best poems he writes not of great expectations but of dreams, desires and hopes unfulfilled. He's good on regret and he's terrific on childhood. He's not wistful and he doesn't do nostalgia; instead he's evocative, perceptive and warm.’
— Keith Richmond, in Tribune (29 February 2008)
‘These poems of people, places, and people in places...have the visual power of paintings and the depth and narrative structure of novels.’
— Vicki Feaver
Fear of Thunder costs £7.00 and was published in October 2007.
ISBN: 978-1-873226-94-0
Andrew Forster was born in South Yorkshire but lived in Scotland for over twenty years before moving to Cumbria in 2008. He was Literature Development Officer for Dumfries and Galloway for five years before becoming Literature Officer for the Wordsworth Trust in 2008.
Dress Rehearsals, a pamphlet, was published by Flarestack in 2000, while his first collection Fear of Thunder (Flambard, ISBN: 978-1-873226940) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2008. His poetry is now included in GCSE teaching.
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