This journal was written during the year following Joan Abse death in a car accident, and it is moving to come alongside Dannie Abse in his grief. It is a very honest report of how he kept going, just, it refuses the glib, the book finishes on the anniversary of Joan's death in an arbitrary way, you haven't got to the end of the story and there is a sense of loss and separation, your privileged access and companionship with Dannie Abse has been terminated, as he writes "there are no happy endings", but he does go on journeying beyond the separation.
A lot of the entries include a thought from the present that sparks a memory which is then told separately - and the shift between the present and the past is key to the experience of grief for Dannie Abse - it is as those he is obsessed with the hoped for past just out of reach.
As a poet many of his reflections include poetry - mostly of others, some his own - and it is a really special way to be introduced to a poem - rather than the cold encounter in a collection here the poem is already remembered and breathed with a rich life and meaning. I wish that I live life with poetry so closely woven into its fabric.
As a bit of a random thought there was one shocking inaccuracy in the book - when he refers to going to "Barnet village" - having grown up in Barnet I need to point out that it is not and never has been a village.
By the way this is another book read because of a review in Planet.
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