Loudness

Judy Brown’s beautiful first collection of poetry is called ‘Loudness’. A straightforward manner and a gift for ironic humour belie the artful complexities and the exacting observations evident in her work. Titles like ‘The ExPats’, ‘The P45’, ‘The Crash’, kick start edgy narratives featuring characters who will suffer for their modern sins. Alternatively there are also disquisitions on colour, perception, ex-angels, spontaneous combustion and other mysterious phenomena. This baroque quality, along with her sudden modulations of tone and register, and a keenly sensuous appreciation of the physical world, is reminiscent of the metaphysical poets. She is an outstanding and original new voice in modern poetry.