Shelling Peas with My Grandmother in the Gorgiolands

Sarah Wimbush is a Leeds poet who hails from Doncaster. Her debut poetry pamphlet, Bloodlines, won the Mslexia/PBS Poetry Pamphlet Competition 2019. It was published in 2020 by Seren and shortlisted in the Michael Marks Awards. In 2020 she was a winner in The Poetry Business Book and Pamphlet Competition with The Last Dinosaur in Doncaster, published by Smith|Doorstop in 2021. Her poems have appeared in Brittle Star, The Interpreter’s House and Stand, among others, and have been highly placed in a number of single poem competitions, including 1st prize in the Mslexia, 2nd in the Ledbury and 3rd in The Plough. She is a member of York Stanza and Doncaster Read 2 Write, and received a Northern Writers’ Award in 2019. Her first book-length collection, Shelling Peas with My Grandmother in the Gorgiolands, is published by Bloodaxe in 2022.

There is a Romany saying, We are all one: all who are with us are ourselves: Sarah Wimbush’s collection draws us into the world of Travellers with linguistic panache and delight.

• I11 House12 White Cottage13 Shelling Peas with My Grandmother in the Gorgiolands14 Mother Tongue16 Dukkering17 Carroty Kate 18 Gran Violet Applies a Poultice19 Gal20 The Hedgehog’s Tale21 John Thomas22 Pitched early mornin’ at encampment o’ Gypsy king Esau Smith23 Scrapping at Marshall’s Engineering, Gainsborough24 I can see Sandbeck Hall25 Them Dunstan Kids26 Our Jud27 Threshin’28 Straw Ticks29 Bedsheet30 Meat Puddin’31 Laneham Ferry32 The Bittern33 The Calling Basket34 A Sund’y in Worksop35 Late Afternoon by a Hedge36 Census 191137 Earring38 The Ring39 Walking Girl40 The Astronaut Who Came to Tea42 In the Library43 Gifts44 BloodlinesII46 Pilgrim Queens47 Things My Mother Taught Me48 Inside Lingerie49 2:15 at Doncaster50 The Pencil Sharpener51 Giant Leaping52 I learned to drive in a metallic blue Ford Capri53 Visiting My Aunt on Her Birthday, 1st September 197954 Uncle Reg55 Between Mary Berry’s Baking Bible and My Class Enjoys Cooking56 Rebel57 A Spring Morning58 Vixen59 Pompocali60 Trip to the National Portrait Gallery, with the wife61 The Powder-monkey’s Apprentice62 Peasholm Park63 Blood Sugar64 William Shaw is lowered down the shaft65 Hillards66 STOP!67 Rosso Youthy 198468 Near Extinction70 Markham Main71 The York, Edlington72 The Lost74 Our Language77 Acknowledgements