Polly Clark

Polly Clark (born 1968) is a Canadian-born British writer and poet.[1] Her first novel, Larchfield, about the author W. H. Auden, was published in 2017.

Background

Clark was born in Toronto and came to the UK as a child, growing up in Cumbria, Lancashire and the Scottish border area.[1] She now lives in Scotland and produces the Literature Programme at Cove Park, Scotland's International Artist Residency Centre, near Helensburgh.[2] She has had a varied career, including a period as a teacher of English in Hungary and as a zookeeper.[3] She was Poet in Residence for the Southern Daily Echo.[4][5]

Her first novel, Larchfield, was published in March 2017 and is based on the short period spent by W. H. Auden as a teacher at the Larchfield Academy in Helensburgh, Scotland (where he wrote The Orators).[2] Larchfield won the 2015 Mslexia Women's Novel Competition (under its draft title, When Auden Met Dora).[6] David Robinson in The National and Books from Scotland calls it "layered, clever, captivating".[2] John Boyne 'Magical and transcendent . . . I suspect that few debuts in 2017 will match the elegance of Larchfield. This is a beautiful novel: passionate, lyrical and surprising. I will remember Larchfield for a long time.'[7]. Stuart Kelly in The Scotsman remained immune to its charms, however, saying "it is not a work for which I would recommend a reader parting with money".[8]

In 2017, Clark contributed to a BBC2 documentary on Auden's life[9] and wrote a piece for the Guardian on childbirth.[10]

Works

Poetry
  • Kiss (Bloodaxe Books 2000)
  • Take Me With You (Bloodaxe Books 2005; shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize)
  • Farewell My Lovely (Bloodaxe Books 2009)
  • A Handbook for the Afterlife A Pamphlet (Templar 2015; shortlisted for the Michael Marks Awards)

Book
  • Larchfield (2017)

References
  1. "Polly Clark". Jenny Brown Associates. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  2. "DAVID ROBINSON REVIEWS: LARCHFIELD BY POLLY CLARK". Books from Scotland. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  3. "Polly Clark". Poetry International Web. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  4. "Poet Polly meets laureate". The Daily Echo. 12 December 2001. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  5. "Rhyming gang: Thornden School pupils prove they are well-versed in creativity". The Salisbury Journal. 8 March 2003. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  6. Polly Clark - Women's Novel Competition 2015 winner, Mslexia. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  7. Boyne, John. "Larchfield review: John Boyne on a 'passionate and surprising debut'". Irish Times.
  8. Stuart Kelly (20 April 2017). "Book review: Larchfield by Polly Clark". The Scotsman. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  9. "BBC2 WH Auden film featuring Larchfield". Polly Clark official website. 27 September 2017. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  10. Clark, Polly. "Guardian Family piece". Guardian. Guardian.
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