POETRY BOOK SOCIETY AUTUMN CHOICE 2019

‘This is all true bill’ begins Scott McKendry’s Curfuffle. What follows is a phantasmagorical, Technicolour journey through Belfast past and present told by one of the city’s most exciting emerging voices: Fred and Pebbles Flintstone rub shoulders with Dipso McCaw and Speccy Rab; Our Gordie and a Mormon elder ruin plans for an afternoon spent with a tutti-frutti cigarillo wrap stuffed with skunk; Greylag geese are afforded the protection of the local paramilitaries on the Shankill estate and the demon Belphégor (Hell’s Ambassador to France) eggs you on to feed bits of Red Leicester and pickle to a hungry Harpy Eagle.

At its heart, this pamphlet comes to terms with generational trauma, class politics and the rituals and traditions of the poet’s native city. This stunning debut will stay with you and leave you crooning Abba Zaba go-zoom, babbette baboon!