Chain Reaction 2015

This years Chain Reaction mass book launch was poetry based and for some reason many people are afraid of poetry so it was good to see that the numbers for this years event were still high.

Overcoming any poetry phobia was well worth it as the audience was entranced by the recited poems.

David Eggleton spoke in a declamatory manner as he felt it suited the event but assured us that his poetry worked equally well when read more quietly.

Alan Roddick spoke of Charles Brasch who is well remembered as the founding editor of Landfall but who always considered himself a poet first.  Alan then read a poem of Brasch which he spent 30 years perfecting and then his last poem which was written just days before his death.  The audience was visibly moved.

This year Vincent O’Sullivan keep his cell phone off and as well as reading a poem from his volume of selected poems Being Here he gave a touching tribute to all the work Alan Roddick has done over the years as Charles Brasch’s literary executor.