Paul McLoughlin on Sarah Howe in London Grip

Sarah Howe's verse has intrigued and challenged me over the past few months, so I was delighted to read Paul McLoughlin's review of her prize-winning Loop of Jade on London Grip this week. Like all the best criticism, his work encourages readers to get hold of the book and form or revise their own views.

Why is the review in question so good? Well, it strikes an excellent balance, especially bearing in mind the opinion-laden minefield that has been created beyond Howe's verse itself. McLoughlin manages to highlight Howe's terrific strengths, while also discussing aspects that I too find difficult in her poetry. It would be hugely unfair to extract out-of-context quotes from McLoughlin's piece, so I recommend you read it in full here.

Poetic justice

Without wanting to trivialise the disgraceful treatment that Sarah Howe has received at the hands of certain sections of the media on the back of having won the T.S. Eliot Prize with her first collection, Loop of Jade, it’s worth pointing out that such articles end up providing terrific publicity, generating extra readers for her intriguing book and creating the opposite effect to what seems to have been intended by their authors. Poetic justice, in fact.