Notebook

Sasha Dugdale's first collection of poems takes its title from the notebook kept by J.M.W. Turner, whose responses to the world are explored in six of her poems. The book is also a notebook of the poet's own experiences, of living and working in Russia, of relationships and questions of identity. Best known as a translator of contemporary Russian drama, Dugdale writes with deep insight, finding beauty and humanity in unexpected places. She is with the outsider, the observer: a woman standing apart as a crowd surges around her, waiting figures at a snowbound airport - the painter and the poet. Linking the poems in Notebook is Dugdale's belief in the creative power of artist and writer not only to record but to transform reality.