Charlotte was born in the Midlands and lives in West Yorkshire. She works as a regional manager for a health charity.  Her spoken word album Body Politic was released in 2012.

I Refuse to Turn into a Hatstand brims with personas who explore conformity, separateness and the illusions of love. These poems are united in a confident control of language and rhythm, and by innovative and resourceful imagery.

Charlotte Wetton’s pamphlet delivers the debut of a gifted poet.

I Refuse to Turn Into a Hatstand

Charlotte Wetton’s I Refuse to Turn into a Hatstand is a startlingly accomplished debut.  The lexical inventiveness and vivid storytelling familiar from her fluent and electric readings are present on the page, where her rich and often slightly surreal imagery informs formally adroit and crafted poems, addressing themes including integrity, alienation and personal relationships. Wetton’s seriousness of intent is complemented and enriched by wry humour, intellectual clarity and a refreshing emotional restraint.
Steve Ely

Charlotte Wetton’s poetry is compelling and charged, attentive to our innermost dialogues, the parallel lives we might have led. I’ve been looking forward to this pamphlet for a long time.
Helen Mort

The Inheritance

I refuse to be claimed by this shroud of a house.
I refuse to turn into a hatstand.

I will not settle into these colours,
absent-mindedly meld to the walls

though if I stand near the frames on the stair
my profile stiffens to a black silhouette.

If I could plunge every room into cold water, I would,
flush away the ruching, swagging, the precious stucco
work.
Instead of porcelain, I collect the numbers of estate agents,
dream of eloping with an auctioneer.

The dead cram the bed like jellied terrine,
clammy weight pressing me into the goose-down.

All night long they play the pianoforte.
They have a lot to say about my marriage prospects.

Dust lines my throat. I smell of carpet.
My legs are bowing to a Queen Anne curve.

There is no auctioneer on a white steed.
My name is written in the family bible.

I Refuse To Turn into a Hatstand, Charlotte Wetton, £5