Writer Mab Jones stops by to tell us about her new book, Poor Queen! Mab will be launching Poor Queen at Waterloo Tea Rooms in Roath, Cardiff on 21 October 2014, from 6-7.30pm. Why not go along and support her! More information about Mab’s Book Tour here

Poor Queen is my first collection, an accumulation of satirical, scurrilous, and sometimes even scatological verse, mostly written in the first few years after I began writing poetry, from 2007-2010.

Really, this is a book that should have been published back then, but the right publisher for it simply did not exist. Now, they do: they are called Burning Eye Books, they are based in Bristol, and they are run by a guy called Clive Birnie who loves performance poetry, is a fine poet himself, and is now the publisher of many well-known modern perf poets such as Salena Godden, Rob Auton, Monkey Poet, Anna Freeman, Lucy Lepchani – and myself.

It’s great to be amongst such luminaries of the spoken word scene, and we all owe a lot to Clive’s passion, hard work, and vision. I’m also indebted to ‘outsider artist’ Norris Nuvo who designed the amazing cover image – a punk-ish meld of me and the queen set as a sort of postage stamp. I think Norris is a true talent and some limited edition postcards, prints and poems are also available and will be up for sale soon on my website.

The poems in this are similarly punk in style… Mostly rhyming, funny, political, angry, raw, and rude. There are lots of pieces about love going wrong, about need and greed, about social injustice. It is very un-PC. My style is a lot different now – especially since becoming Resident Poet in the National Botanic Garden of Wales in 2012 – but these are the poems which ‘made my name’, as it were, and it’s great to have them all collected together in one place.

They are, indeed, “witty verse telling of lively working-class scenarios”, and they are a fun, rollicking read (even if I do say so myself!). You can buy the book signed, from me, with a limited edition postcard, for £10; or from Burning Eye Books for £8.99.

As far as Cardiff goes, I am of course an Ely girl, and the humour is very definitely of our city. Some of the poems are written in a Keeerdiff dialect. I hope my fellow Diffians enjoy it.

Mab Jones is a ‘daring wordsmith’ from Cardiff. Find out more at http://www.mabjones.com

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