NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

This is an attractively formatted new journal, edited by Ann J. Davidson, and published by SCW Books. It has uniformly large clear print throughout—although some of the editorial apparatus is a bit quirky— and the small black-and-white illustrations are pleasing and appropriate. Notes on contributors are very brief, and for a publication with such a specialist interest, some more information here might be welcome, if only to allow enthusiastic readers the opportunity to learn more about the writings of authors they like, or to follow-up on some of the topics suggested by the articles. There are, in fact, twelve contributors to this issue, and the range of genres includes poetry, short fiction, biography and other non-fiction subjects.

The first article, by Davidson, forms a kind of preface to the whole and, in my view, is a bit uncertain and disjointed in its aims, varying in styles from poetic to encyclopedic.

Similarly, Richard J. Stanton's ALBERT CAMUS: HIS WORLD OF NAMES, is an uneven compound of biography and etymology.

Gerald England's INTERNATIONALIZATION THROUGH HAIKU is much more successful, being both personal and pragmatic in its manner and its exposition. If the journal proves to be successful, and earns more space for contributions like this, many of the topics glimpsed tantalizingly here might be expanded upon, encouraging readers to ask questions, write letters and debate the subjects in greater detail. For example, as persuasive as England is, I wish there had been room to deal more fully with questions like, why it is that the haiku form itself is so appealing.

The other really notable contribution is the short fiction by Andrew Parker entitled, EPILOG TO THE STRANGER. There are many sensitive appraisals of characters' motivations and reactions in Parker's story, and the narrative is well-paced for its limited scale.

Certainly this is a very intriguing debut issue, and the potential for future success has been clearly demonstrated.

An A5 perfect bound book with 130 pages. This issue contained poetry, images (of contributors), articles, stories, a short play, and an interview. The black and white image on the inside front cover was fine except that it would probably be wise to omit the cigarette in future. An interesting PROLEGOMENON, by Ann J Davidson, introduced the thoughts of Albert Camus. Dr S Arivudainambi discussed Tamil language in an article called TAMIL — A GLORIOUS LANGUAGE. The discussion was very interesting until:

Even now, a system called Sidha system, which evolved out of these books, is being practised. This system of medicine has many cures for the incurables including cancers.

The interviewee in this issue was John Light who talked about LIGHT'S LIST, the world-wide list of small press magazines, which is a useful reference publication. Consequently, readers interested in this area would welcome this interview.

There were a variety of poems. FERN by Liz Niven describes a fern growing in an inhospitable place:

	it's flourished.
	See its glossy leaves shine.

	Watch the water caught
	in the camera's quick lens,

	He digs with a nib
	in the dark like an aardvark
	hauls his findings
	to a high hill, frees them
	into first light: lets them
	roll down onto unexpected heads.

Before remarking on the content of this very legibly typed 176 pages featuring 23 contributors in A5 perfect bound annual volume, and without too much detriment to the contributions themselves which might have been approached without a surrounding fussiness of layout, there are things which must be said, I hope without appearing as a know-all. I number them for ease, and they are my opinions which others might not share:

1. Copyright symbol for a poem, article, story or graphic is not needed each time after an author's name in the title headings; it is sufficient to say once only in the preliminaries that all authors retain copyright and that permission must be given by them for other usage.
2. It is not necessary to have two contents lists by author and by category. There are ways of combining the two in one, absorbing both in a single contents list.
3. No price is given and the address for SCW Books is hidden away in text on page 2 while more prominence is given to the address for another journal which carried a review of the Journal!
4. Acknowledgments are at the end of the issue and include those for unpublished work. I am sure these could be omitted and the previously published items could receive acknowledgment via brief notes against the items themselves, thus saving a rather ungainly two pages.
5. The editor's PROLEGOMENON: why not simple PREFACE away from Greek etymology?

The focus of #3 is on Tessa Ransford OBE, founder/director of the Scottish Poetry Library. Among other accomplishments and awards she edited LINES REVIEW for 10 years and is currently president of the International PEN Scottish Centre. Here she is represented by 17 poems, three followed by postscripts saying more about the circumstances of the poems, which is unusual but no doubt adds to interest. Certainly out of the many bird poems, the postscript to a poem about terns from the Arctic, GRAVITY AND GRACE: ARCTIC TERNS AT BALNAKIL, observed in north Scotland held attention with its notes on northern sky pointers. The Plough changed its name through the centuries, as did the pointer stars to Polaris. Very early on I think the two pointer stars extrapolated to Draco and Ursa Major or the Great Bear had no animal significance and related to the Hesperides, apples and garden. The informed guess is that ancient druids, well after Stonehenge was constructed, used it ceremonially, facing north-east to observe the midsummer sunrise. At least one modern Druid indoor ritual opens by turning to the east. I know of no northern stance, and anciently a star in Draco was the pole star. Tessa Ransford also explains the metres of an Alcaic Ode in which the poem was written. WAXWINGS IN THE PARK uses emphasis of word repetition, which, far from dilution, uncannily as it were creates an extra breath start to hold up the poetry to attention. A useful device to pep up a rather flat poem. Here is an early stanza:

	A flock of waxwings in the sycamore
	sycamore in February in the park
	park green and windswept in the city           
	city gray yet glistening in the east 
	east coast of Scotland facing Europe
	Europe, Scandinavia, and Siberia
	Siberia, which sends its icy greetings 
	icy greetings holding back the Spring
	Spring to come, longer light and walks
	walks in the park perhaps to glimpse            
	crested waxwings banded on the boughs.

	   Do I know less than an old mountain woman
	with hands that grow worn with each working day?
	   Should I seek the holy or seek the human?
	Is it really so simple to kneel down and pray?
	   And if I let go will I see their Eden?
	These questions I ponder as I turn away.

Of the rest of the drawings, John Light predominates with eleven, also contributing four poems and a review. His VIEW OF THE MIDDLE AGES and BLACKPOOL CLOUDS 4 are strong in atmosphere and meaning.

Other contributors of poems are Gerald England, whose HENRY WINSTANLEY reminds us of Winstanley's efforts to build the first Eddystone lighthouse, miles out from the mainland, and how he perished in its loss in 1703, leaving valuable lessons for subsequent builders of the lighthouse on the Eddystone Rocks. One cannot have too many of these recollections of heroes in our past history. Ashok Kuma Khanna provides three poems on roads of a philosophic nature. From RING ROADS:

	At night it so appears
	That my Delhi Metropolis
	As if is wearing
	A golden two-string necklace.

For emotional and atmospheric skill I rate highly THERE ARE NO CHILDREN HERE by Penelope Thoms; while I liked MID-MORNING by Mike Thomas, which has some strains of Dylan in it:

	    A seesawing, singing, cold wind 
	was singeing the hair of the Samson-headed day
	    and playful rain breathed down.

In summary, the editor has collected a very wide variety of international contributions which have talent, and aside from some unwariness in correcting some contributions and the need in my opinion for a leaner and less cluttered format, I think that this journal is a well worth while annual and look forward to the 2006 issue.

The French writer Camus (pronounced Camoo) was the youngest winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and a member of the resistance during the Second World War. Unfortunately he died later in a road accident and the world was deprived of his literary genius.

It's wonderful that he now has literary sons, albeit by proxy, and it is my great pleasure to review their work in this latest edition of their journal.

Sufficient almost to say that the writers in here include such people as the Welsh poet Raymond Humphreys, recent winner in the Pulsar Poetry Competition which it was my privilege to be invited to guest-judge in the final stages.

Humphreys is a talented and out of the ordinary writer and his articles and poetry in this edition do him justice. They are indeed one of the main highlights of this publication. There's a fact-filled tribute to Arthur Smith, the editor of Cambrensis the Welsh short story journal, an inspirational essay titled ANOTHER LOOK AT EXISTENTIALISM which is almost an how-and-why-to-do-it guide to the why and wherefore of writing, and of course the ubiquitous poems. This time there are two and I've gone for a verse from CENTRAL BUS STATION, KUALA LUMPUR written in a style somewhat reminiscent of the currently unfashionable Rudyard Kipling from this versatile writer. Zeitgeist plays her part in poetry:

	The leprous Hindu, the old Malay,
	they're only after some buckshee,
	don't seek to wrench my soul away:
	so why should she?

	I dwell in possibility —
	A Fairer House than Prose —
	More numerous of Windows —
	Superior — for Doors 

	tendrils grow in wreaths
	the heart a coil of fire
	the rose a form of flame

The main article CYPRUS IN BLACK AND WHITE by Rubi Andredakis concentrates strongly on the Greek and Greek Cypriot perspective. Having recently been to Cyprus myself and visited the barbed wire and minefields and in fact written a prize-winning poem AT THE BORDER about the experience I know it's not all black and white as painted in words and pictures by Andredakis. A Turkish viewpoint might add some balance.

The illustrations in the journal serve to break up what might become heavy going at times. Of the charcoal drawings by Gerald England, I especially like JOGGERS ON PLAYA DE CAMPION, bringing some light relief from the politics.

Nigel Jarrett is a good short story writer, a past winner of the Rhys Davies Award for short fiction in fact, and his HOTEL DE LA PAIX lives up to that high standard. They say that the first sentence of a story must grab the reader by the lapels. Well try this for size:

TINY Mr. Kesselman is in the garden again, fussing over his buttonhole and looking back at the building as though he owns it.