Alan Gillott is an important influence on Yorkshire poetry encouraging crossover between performing, visual and media arts. A recent reviewer described his poetry as “erudite and mellifluous, written with a musical ear for sound and rhythm, and far-ranging in its cultural references. A real treat.” (Wordspace 2016) 

“This collection of poems tell the story of a life lived with acute observations of people and place, in a tone both highly personal and yet universal. The nomandic life of the ex-pat child is brilliantly evoked in the sequence of poems set in Iraq. Later in the collection, and I realise I may be biased towards crime stories, one of my favourites is The Shoplifter, in which Gillott skilfully gets into the mind of the petty criminal. The poem is driven by the formal structure of his rhyme scheme, as if the shoplifter is compelled to steal, urged on to the inevitable moment of being caught.
There are also love poems, and religious poems, including a brilliant evocation of what went wrong between teachings of Jesus and the founding of the established Church (Between the Lines, vii, Paul) and overall there is something for everyone in this collection, some unexpected observations and imagery which is both deft and subtle.” – Helen Cadbury, Novelist and Poet

Alan Gillott is well known on both sides of the Atlantic as a poet, co-editor of Stairwell Books and co-host of the Spoken Word ‘open mic’ in York. His first full collection takes us from England to the United States, India and places between. The journey is fascinating, thought provoking and always entertaining.

Temporary Safety by Rose Drew, was launched on May 20th 2011 with very successful celebrations in York and the US. A second, updated edition was published in 2012, and is now available.
Temporary Safety was awarded ninth position in the Purple Patch Top Twenty Individual Collections List for 2011. Rose appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2011, and the Illkley Festival in both 2012 and 14, and is in demand for readings throughout the North of England.