Nearly a month ago, I wrote about how life can change in the most unexpected ways, and although sometimes the unexpected change is not as positive as you might hope, thankfully that chancing upon a virtual crossroads and taking a random direction, can lead to the most marvellous and rewarding adventure. The particular life change was brought about by seeing a sign in Waterstones about a prospective book club, I went along, I joined, I met not only new books and their authors, but new friends! Three of those friends are now what might be called my besties, and we have a lot of fun together, including many adventures – in writing and in life.
This is how I described meeting this particular friend:
The members (of the book club) were mostly women, but there was one chap who always had an interesting, thoughtful opinion, and had a way of saying something which made us chuckle, and which afterwards I would think about and ponder on. It was sheeting down with rain, and it was a weekday and I was splashing my way up the main street when I was accosted by a man with a wizardly air, peeping out from under a dripping rain hood, grinning at me – and after a second I realised it was my interesting book club friend! We escaped the rain to find coffee, and had a pleasant hour talking books, and I discovered that he too was a writer.
This writer and poet, aka Macaque, aaka Hamish MacNeil, is incredibly clever and gifted, and has just published the most wonderful collection of his poetry, Mosaic.
The long-awaited third poetry collection from Macaque, Mosaic continues to explore the themes of love, loss, history and memory, ars poetica and self-examination that composed A Man Remembers and Palimpsest of Ghosts. These new poems include the open mic favourite Menu, and the shortlisted Bordeaux, along with many other fresh works, all of which will touch your soul.
The blurb explains the choice of title for this marvellous and moving volume, Mosaic:
The poems in this collection are individually beautiful, like separate tiles in a mosaic, different hues nestling alongside each other, covering different topics speaking with different voices, but coming together to build a picture, college life, love, pain and strength in the 21st century. A worthy successor to Palimpsest of Ghosts.
If you love poetry, if you have friends who do, if you’re not sure whether you like poetry at all, then please, please get ‘Mosaic’ it is an absolute joy and a treat. Some of Macaque’s work has dark tones, as does life, there are many shades in his verse, but as in an actual mosaic you can enjoy the individual pieces, and enjoy them as they are together in this one book.
It’s available as hardback, paperback and Kindle:
Lois Elsden 
Oh those wonderful little detours!
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So unexpected, so delightful!
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