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This lively second collection from a young, much-travelled writer falls into two parts. 'Transit' includes poems of travel and transport, especially Japan, where Tobias Hill lived for two years. 'Back to the City' is about London, from hangover to Underground; Hiroshima; and the 'City of Clocks', a fusion of cities and ages. They are poems crammed with a young man's curiosity and eye for detail, and show his great ability for storytelling.
List of contents
- I Transit
- The City of Clocks
- Transit
- Prisons in a Departure Lounge at Midnight
- One Day in Hiroshima
- from A Year In Japan
- May
- August
- October
- Homesickness
- Playing Japanese Chess with the Elder Mrs Uchida
- Sumo Wrestler in Sushi Bar
- Earthquake, Osaka
- Green Tea Cooling
- The Barber's Daughter
- Waiting
- The Secret of Burning Diamonds
- Rio in Carnival
- Jael
- Three Wishes in a Small Town
- The Mule and the Rain
- How to Light Dynamite
- Flora and the Admiral
- II Back To The City
- London Pastoral
- New Verses for Clock City Magpies
- North-West London
- Love Song
- Broken Bone
- Playground at 2 am
- Sheep's Clothing
- Xenophobia
- The Woman who talks to Ezra Pound in Tesco
- Life Savings
- Today the House is Full of Dishcloths
- Reasons Why
- Meat
- July 14th, 10 pm
- The Beekeepers
- Midnight in the City of Clocks
About the author
Tobias Fleet Hill (30 March 1970 - 26 August 2023) was a British poet, essayist, writer of short stories and novelist. Selected as one of the country's Next Generation poets, shortlisted for the 2004 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year and named by the TLS as one of the best young writers in the country, Tobias Hill was one of the leading British writers of his generation. His award-winning collections of poetry are Year of the Dog, Midnight in the City of Clocks, and Zoo. His fiction has been published to acclaim in many countries. AS Byatt has observed that "There is no other voice today quite like this."
