Fingers in the Sparkle Jar by Chris Packham

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From the date in the front cover I have had this book since January 2020 and I think I have been trying to read it, off and on, ever since – I found it hard to really engage with it, the jumping around in chronologies was sometimes a challenge to follow.

And maybe this is a characteristic that sees to Chris Packman’s encounter with the world – his neurodiversity created a separation from most of those around him.

One aspect that I enjoyed was that Chris grow up in Southampton and a various points there are references to places in and around the City that I know – although most have changed in the decades since he was a child.

While this is a story, in part, of the origins of Chris’ passion for nature which has driven his career there is a lot of death in it, and often it seems Chris is the source of it. This might not be exactly the origin story we would expect.

It is also an account of Chris much later in life addressing, through therapy, his attempted suicide – this provides a counter point to the first person narrative of his childhood.

Overall it is a jigsaw, and probably like any life story we don’t have all the pieces, we don’t have the picture on the box for reference, we are trying to connect the pieces glimpse the image, and I think Chris is actually doing the same – it feels that the process of writing this will have been a therapeutic one.

Love, Vito by Vito Coppola

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As Vito is probably my favourite dancer from Strictly I picked this up from the library, and as expected it is filled with a vibrant Italian joy.

We hear of a childhood that is filled with the simply pleasures of food and family.

The world of competitive dance is challenging, and that is told honestly but the energy of Vito carries us through without really noticing the darkness.

And then on into the world of Strictly – it is a happy go lucky account, no mention of the departures of his fellow Italian professorial dancers under clouds of bullying accusations.

There are also recipes at regular intervals, much as fellow Strictly biographer John Whaite included in his book.

Vagabonds by Eloghosa Osunde

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Being honest I found this a more difficult book to connect with than Necessary Fiction, the twists and turns, the blurring of realities, the expansive cast of characters had me often confused.

That said there was a poetic quality to the writing that was at times engaging – moments to allow it to wash over you and not worry about exactly what was happening.

The play of myth and queerness, the writing of cultures separate for the influences of western Europe is so rich.

Middle Child by Annie Muir

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Checking this blog I read Annie Muir’s pervious pamphlet, New Year’s Eve, when it was newly published back in 2021, and found in it a freshness, a freshness they have carried onwards into these latest poems.

There a subtle twists in the imaginary, at times quirky but the kind of sideways glance that I feel I am often giving life.

Justin which is a poem about a friend’s break-up and a stuffed toy octopus pulls on your heart strings in just this way.

Fourteen Poems Pamphlets 2026

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chronically online by Rose Ramsden

Responding to online material the poems are interspersed between grabs of memes and social media comments.

Sexual violence as taught by 2009 Wattpad romance is an uncomfortably powerful poem.

Appetite by Clara-Læila Laudette

The Bare Thing and Bodily Fluids by Len Lukowski

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It was good that I happened to read these two collections right after a trans man walks into a gay bar – they act as a poetic response to the same themes Harry Nicholas explored and so there was a mutual enrichment of my encounter of both writers work.

Their work has featured in Fourteen Poems and Bi+ Lines.

The poems have a clarity to them, I felt a directness that really engaged me, even when they were exploring metaphors or speaking one step removed from a subject.

The poem “The Virus” from The Bare Thing could be read as a poem about COVID, could be read as a poem about HIV and that speaks to the ways so much of the “unprecedented” nature of COVID had deep echoes for many gay men and others that had ever paid attention to HIV.

 

a trans man walks in to a gay bar by Harry Nicholas

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The relationship between sexuality and gender identity is complex, and sadly gay spaces are not always safe spaces for trans people, whether they are trans men or trans women.

That complexity is being prayed upon by some wishing to drive a wedge between LGB and T+ people, often in terms that invalidate the lived experiences of trans people.

I am gay, and among the (many) men I fancy there are trans men – some people would tell me that means I am not actually gay, if I fancy trans men I must be bi – but that is not who I am.

Into that mix Harry Nicholas speaks powerfully and personally – to tell of their journey from Lesbian to Gay Man risks being the ultimate trigger for those anti-trans LGB campaigners.

But what I found most interesting was the reflections on what it means to be a gay man, how “manliness” is defined and policed within the gay ‘community’ - in different ways the gym-toned twink and the bear express a strong maleness and expressions of self, expressions of the body, that hold your maleness more lightly are treated a risky. It felt like permission to worry less and be more myself.