Eva and George
by Abegail Morley
£7.99 (pub. 2013)

Eva and George, Sketches in Pen and Brush is a collection of poetry and art that recreates significant moments from the life of Berlin painter George Gross, in the imagined voice of his wife Eva.

Eva and George Reviews

"These are fine, hard-bitten poems with the imaginative strength and resonance to stand alongside the work of George Grosz without being in any way diminished by it. The realisation of Eva Peter's voice is a triumph, and introduces Abegail Morley as one of our most impressive and rewarding poets."

Peter Bennet, Border (Bloodaxe)

"Abegail Morley skilfully captures the rawness of George Grosz's acerbic images of despots and outcasts in post WWI Germany, while tenderly evoking a portrait of the man behind the art. In lucidly-voiced poems spoken by his wife, Eva Peter, she explores the passion and compassion that drove him. In doing so, she reminds us of the casual and calculated malice we are capable of inflicting on each other in daily living, and that 'We are those passers-by'."

Heidi Williamson, Electric Shadow (Bloodaxe)

"Abegail Morley's sequence, Eva and George – Sketches in Pen and Brush, marked by both authenticity and originality, impresses with startling imagery and the striking juxtaposition of the private and the public. Her poetic account of George Grosz and Eva Peter's life in the Weimar Republic is at the same time a compelling panorama of a whole era characterized by struggle, violence and radicalism."

Wolfgang Görtschacher, Poetry Salzburg Review

"An affecting sequence, Morley impresses with a startling account of a private and public existence in a Germany transforming itself after the First World War. Stark images of despots and outcasts mirror the artist's paintings, but Morley's engaging account of passion and malice, and dramatic exploration into Grosz's inspiration, adds more colour to a richly imaginative collection."

PBS Bulletin

Sonnenfinsternis

You chronicle all that is sick in your satires,
wear a striped convict's suit in your studio
to paint out your revolutionary ideas.

Fox-like you sneak up on chickens
in the hen house, scatter them into the rot
of farm smells: dung, sweat, faeces.

You're the big bad wolf of fairy tales
blowing the roof off Berlin: a hunter,
a warrior, a battle omen of victory.

You howl at the black knot of sky,
scrape at the dust, the concrete city streets,
Nazi blood in your teeth and claws.

You warn the blinkered donkeys of Germany
that these are their last days.

('Sonnenfinsternis' = eclipse of the sun)

(from Eva and George)