Invisible Spaces

A brand new collection of verse by Jack Alun, following on from his widely acclaimed first collection, Vertical Horizons.

Inspired by place but seeking out the unseen, redefining the experience of traveller but looking back and seeing the heartbreak, the fear, the simple joy and madness of the world, this is Jack Alun's finest collection to date.

By turns haunting and confessional and full of fantastic story-telling, these poems witty and profound rekindle themes that touch us all: growing old, love, mortality, travelling and eating dodgy ice-cream and dreaming of death on a moped.

Humorous, poignant, sometimes absurd, Invisible Spaces offers a highly individualistic view of the world. Employing a mixture of recollection, closely observed incident and emotion, the book explores a range of subjects, places and ideas with a light touch and simply expressed structure. But, above all, Invisible Spaces is a book of poetry that is both readable and never dull.

From the Prologue:

'Apropos of nothing or maybe hoping to end a drought of ideas, I started rereading Homer's Odyssey. A strange time, as it happened - a lull before a storm, a phoney war - when nothing much, apart from two brief trips to Malta and Mallorca, seemed to be of stimulus. Then again, one can't quite ignore the connection between the two islands and their sea vistas and what I began to read. But, like everyone else, I couldn't imagine what was about to happen next. I was in the process of formulating ideas for a series of poems around Odysseus's travels when Covid struck and the world, as we had experienced it, imploded, with all the curtailment and confinement that that implosion came to entail. Gradually, as the days mounted and with them a drift towards introspection, my ideas began to take on a far more personal, inquiring approach in what I was writing, so that the result, Invisible Spaces, is a collection of poems that journeys both inwardly and outwardly, exploring encounters with a range of people, places and events through the mirage of a single mind, the invisible space.'

Born in Cardiff, South Wales, Jack started writing poetry at university where he also wrote two plays and several short pieces for the Orchard Theatre Company, based in North Devon. He also worked part time for while for the Arvon Foundation, during its inception years. Later, he began lecturing in Hampshire, where he co-authored a book with one of the scriptwriters from 'Wish You Were Here?, followed by the very first travel guide devoted entirely to the département of Aveyron. He has contributed photographs, articles and reviews widely to magazines and journals. Under the nom de plume, Jack Alun, he has published three books: Dead Man's Contract, a crime thriller, and two volumes of poetry, plus his work has appeared in poetry magazines worldwide. He currently lives with his wife in a village near Brixham in South Devon.