The Soho Leopard

Hallucinatory and lyrical, these poems cross Dulwich Pizza Hut with mating alligators, endangered animal species with stage directions for Beauty and the Beast. Making wild connections over space and time, Ruth Padel’s new collection displays her gift for getting into the same register areas of life that are normally far apart. Full of wild life and colour, black and gold, The Soho Leopard explores new extremes of Padel’s voice, range and poetics, linking mythology and zoological science to her rich descriptive powers, vivid speaking voice and the passion and sensuality of her language. Starting from London streets, Soho and Kings Cross, the poems reach out to the Amazon, Siberia, Mexico, Louisiana wetlands, Mayan myth, ancient Athenian politicians, Tudor England, and our human need for stories. Thoughts turn into music in an enchanted castle, a crocodile-god waves the feather of truth at Judas, a downloaded Buddha opens his eyes when highlit on a laptop. We explore a year of urban fox life, watch a prehistoric story-teller defrosting, hear invisible alligators explain scarring in the human epidermis, while an elephant embroidered by Mary Queen of Scots nearly - but not quite - touches the spinet played by the woman who executed her.