The Swan Wallpaper

“I trick my mind into believing the traffic from the M6 is the wind. I can live without traffic noise, but I cannot live without the wind.”

Belinda Bradley’s poetry contains shades of light and dark. And with each poem flowing effortlessly, her writing takes what might otherwise be seen as mundane, ordinary even, and attaches a profound sense of beauty and meaning to it. Balancing both poignancy and humour, she wrestles with topics from motherhood and employment to loss and the pandemic. The poems in The Swan Wallpaper will make you cry, laugh, and reflect.

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“What’s truly impressive about this collection is its trajectory. Reading it is like being invited on a journey with the poet as she navigates and attempts to make sense of altered worlds: the worlds of family, friendship, work, the known and bewildering past, the unseen future, the pandemic. The poems are carefully crafted and intimate. Moreover, they are brave and insightful. Bradley’s voice is honest and original, and her poems wear their inherent darkness lightly.” – Claire Dyer

“The highly readable, original voice in this collection draws us in. Poems are set firmly in a vivid world of objects – there’s often an air of menace lying just under the concrete images, and subject matter which reinforces this atmosphere. Most often, these poems follow unexpected trains of thought which loop and return like birds, leading to some startling juxtapositions of ideas and images.” – Cathy Grindrod