Clare Shaw says of Carole Bromley’s Sodium 136, a sequence of poems written almost two years ago during a long spell in hospital for brain surgery, ‘This is not just a record of physical suffering – it is a powerful and profoundly intelligent exploration of grief, gratitude, fear, love, and joy. Poetry at its best.’

Last evening, in the Marriott Room at York Central Library,  Carole read to a sell-out audience. The fear and anxiety of serious illness are there in the poems, but so is courage, humility and humour. All these qualities were brought out in a sensitive reading.

Carole was supported by poets Stuart Pickford, with shrewd observations about running obsession, and Emma Storr, who read from her best-selling 2019 collection, Heart Murmur.

Sodium 136 and Heart Murmur are both available from http://www.caldervalleypoetry.com.