Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The ability of being able to believe, to have faith in something that might only exist in the fertile minds of children; is to hold onto life. Not a so called life where bills and the banality of day to day existence are allowed to punch you in the stomach, where they are allowed to chew away the imagination a little piece at a time, but the life in which faeries, goblins and the chance to live as a dragon should you wish; that is true belief and it is one so beautifully captured by Liverpool poet Ged Thompson in his incredibly presented book Middle Earth Magic.
The overriding sense of taking something back from the inevitability of growing up, of losing the capacity of being at one with a world based not on coldness, of dramas and of being alone, frightened and confused by just how terrifyingly unfriendly the world can be but instead finding a piece of you long neglected, erased away, and one that you can truly hold without worry or shame; that is a world anyone would really want to be part of, it is a world that Ged Thompson brings to life with wonderful ease and abundant joy.
Middle Earth Magic is one founded on one thought of absolute certainty, that the writer ploughed everything into making a set of poems come to life and a couple of short stories, passages of dreamland contemplation, become the most real thing you might read in a long age.
To find a writer, especially a poet, so candid about their work, their inspiration behind their words and often dark wanderings through their psyche, is a refreshing change, the setting out of the reason why the book exists so splendidly and beautifully realised and the truth of that honest approach is one that makes the book stand out even more.
With drawings and art work by Liverpool favourite Elizabeth Jones capturing the style of the stories so well, the strong images placed on the page, not as an afterthought but striding alongside the narrative in a sense of conjoined appeal, Ged Thompson’s work is special, it is timeless, funny, well versed and above all, so meaningful that at times you do have to stop yourself from wiping back several tears, to let them run down your face to know the pain and eventual joy in which the book written.
A book of honest endeavour, poems, including the sensational Pityself Bridge, that call out to a simpler time in your life and one that is so far removed from any type of pretension that it sings with gracious awareness. A fantastic book of words so vivid, Ged Thompson makes you believe in the small world, unseen by many, loved by all who know it’s there.
Ged Thompson’s Middle Earth Magic is available to purchase from Write Blend in Waterloo.
Ian D. Hall