The Rules of Form: Sonnets and Slide Rules

Here I’m attempting to show off the unusual size of the book…but I’m also really pleased!

I’m absolutely thrilled to announce that my latest project as the Poet-in-Residence at Cambridge’s Whipple Museum of the History of Science is printed and available!

I am proud to be Editor of The Rules of Form: Sonnets and Slide Rules, a book which demonstrates that ‘a proposition of geometry is a fair and luminous parallel for a work of art’.

This art book has been a long-running project, and it is now available to purchase from me, or from the Whipple Museum  (contact: hps-whipple-museum@lists dot cam dot ac dot uk) for £6, an accessible price for the quality and unique contents of the book, if I may say so.

There are only FIFTY copies – it is a limited edition object! (It’s also a real book, as in, it has an ISBN, and will therefore go into the British Library.) If you have an interest in sonnets, slide rules, calculating monkeys, or art books in general, do buy one.

A spread from our collaboration between poet Lesley Saunders and artist Cassie Herschel-Shorland.

Our contributions include poems written for the project by Lesley Saunders, artist Cassie Herschel-Shorland’s response to the Museum’s Maths Cabinet and to Lesley’s poems, illustrator Badaude’s take on the theme (she gives us a taster of her contribution here,) an essay on Consul the Calculating Monkey by Dr Caitlin Wylie, and a brilliant piece on poetry, the Gothic, and constraints, by Dr Joseph Crawford. Original artwork, exclusive to the book, and other pictures are in colour throughout.

Ever since learning about poets and artists collaborating to produce a book, I wanted to create a small, beautiful ‘art book’ – and I’m pleased to consider The Rules of Form: Sonnets and Slide Rules a very special art book.

The form and contents of the object are equally important, and everything in the book was inspired by the Whipple Museum’s collection of mathematical instruments.

A London-based launch is in progress.

Almost pocket-sized, definitely purse-sized, The Rules of Form is perfect for the train…

Flambard Press launch

Launched this month.

Last week at Daunt Books, Fulham Road, Flambard Press launched Richard Aronowitz’s second novel, It’s Just the Beating of My Heart, to a sizable crowd of enthusiastic supporters.

Poor Richard had lost his voice the day before, so he asked his brother-in-law, an actor, to read the brief excerpt from the novel on his behalf, and the reading was very entertaining indeed.

Here is a brief clip about the novel from the FP site:

‘Waking each morning alone, John Stack finds solace in long, alcohol-fuelled walks through the unchanging landscape of a Gloucestershire valley. Linda, his wife, has left him and his once golden reputation as an art dealer has faded. The only glimmer of light for John comes through the weekend visits of his twelve-year-old daughter Bryony. An encounter with a beautiful and enigmatic neighbour may offer the chance of a new beginning for John, if only he can quieten his suspicions about the death of her husband. Told in sparkling poetic language, It’s Just the Beating of My Heart is a story of loss, heartbreak and hope in a world peopled by ghosts.’

Best of luck to Richard on his second novel!