The bard celebrates two other fine practitioners of the art, and laments a lost brewer
Latest editorial
Lisa Kelly - Last Man to Leave the Ice Factory
Well Versed is edited by JODY PORTER
This right-wing conspiracy theory is used to justify the coercive measures against gender, race and labour rights that best serve capitalism, attests GAVIN O’TOOLE
KENNY MONROSE recommends a new exhibition that highlights the significance of Black British music
ANGUS REID is bowled over by an exuberant film about the making of Keith Jarrett’s legendary concert
MARIA DUARTE, FIONA O’CONNOR and ANDY HEDGECOCK review Savage House, Enzo, Madfabulous, and Erupcja
CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician
Last Man to Leave the Ice Factory
Lisa Kelly
Ice was no chin-chin thing to keep a drink cold;
ice was business, titanic big, tonnes crushed
for the trawlers to keep fish fresh in the hold
tides away from land. Now machines are hushed;
then, up at four we were, 20 waggons waiting
for 20 tonnes of ice each. You’d eat off the floor
it was so polished. Pans of water chilled in a freezing
pool of brine, sliding out in slabs. No more;
Similar stories
SETH SANDRONSKY recommends a production that looks back at the political Tinseltown in the mid-1970s when US cinema ‘didn’t pander to trends’
ALAN MORRISON recommends a consummate, heart-warming collection about a working-class upbringing in the industrial north-east
Warming up for his Durham gig, the bard pays attention to the niceties of language
by Widad Nabi