Lipstick

Lipstick is Maggie Butt’s first full collection and marks the entrance of a voice at once witty and wise, poignant and pertinent. Her poems have a natural approachability, focusing on universal themes through a range of lenses and personae. She brings fresh insight, dry humour and moving simplicity to her subjects, whether writing about nylon sheets and jumble sales, speaking in the voice of an 11th-century stonemason or a Himalayan villager. Her poems cover the world, from Mexico to Russia; they deal with war, with the resilience of women, and, most of all, with love.

‘Maggie Butt needs only to be better known to be widely acclaimed. Her fantasy ‘On My 85th Birthday’ strikes me as the funniest thing of its kind since Jenny Joseph’s famous ‘Warning’.’ Robert Nye

‘Why is poetry so rarely good-hearted? Maggie Butt's is a shining exception. Her generous work enfolds the hopes of a GI bride, the perfectionism of an anorexic girl and the cardboard of a child's crown. Her poems are sympathetic, skilful – and surprising.’ Alison Brackenbury

‘A gift for empathy, a talent for fresh expression, a distinctive voice – three qualities that make a poet worth reading. Maggie Butt's work has these qualities, and, most importantly, a vigour of expression and gift for metaphor.’ William Oxley

‘… beautifully constructed … haunting … touching … enjoyable.’ Envoi

Maggie Butt is an ex-journalist, BBC TV producer and creative writing lecturer, now full-time novelist and poet. Lipstick was her first full collection, published in 2007. In 2021 her sixth poetry collection, everlove was published. Her novels, The Prisoner’s Wife and Acts of Love and War, under the name Maggie Brookes, were published in 2020 and 2022.

76 pages

ISBN: 978-1-871551-94-5