God’s face in your gazpacho

"Humour that leaves you hungry for more"

From tales of the ordinary to an action-packed thriller, Camilla Macpherson looks at the latest offerings

God’s face in your gazpacho - Adam Taylor

Poet and solicitor Adam Taylor’s new book, God’s face in your gazpacho, is an intriguing and offbeat collection of poetry that ranges across topics as diverse as a German fighter pilot shot down in the Second World War, the frustrations of lost luggage and the amenities of a two-star hotel in Bournemouth.

All are treated with a lively sense of humour and many turn the expected on its head. So, for example, a parody of the dreaded maths exam question which asks at what point two trains leaving two stations at different speeds will pass each other becomes a hilarious and touching story of the trains meeting and stopping: ‘Drivers chat. Passengers mingle. Pimms is served. A quartet plays. Three waltz. Two well.’ Perhaps he could turn his attention to trigonometry or the quadratic equation in his next volume.

The wit of many of the poems arises from their sharp focus on the downright ordinariness of daily life. Thus, in ‘The Day Mr Audley Decided to Become a Free Spirit’, Mr Audley pauses before leaving home to make a packed lunch and do the crossword, as any sensible person would. Then, ‘At the press conference his wife made a tearful plea for him to return and mend the garden fence. So he did’. In ‘Sick Home Syndrome’, Mr Taylor writes with a sense of gleeful punning of ‘a certain malaise amongst the trays. The toilet’s flushed but the curtains are pale and drawn’.

Other poems reflect an interest in art, and some strike a more serious note, such as ‘His Black Line’, which tracks the paths of two drivers inexorably to the point where they finally crash head-on. However, Adam Taylor is undoubtedly at his best when turning his satire to the everyday.

Throughout, there is a strong sense of performance to the collection, and it therefore comes as no surprise that Mr Taylor is well known on the poetry circuit, reading his work at festivals, comedy clubs and schools. He has even performed at this year’s Edinburgh Festival, though for those who did not catch him there, video clips of the poet in action are available on his website (www.adamtaylorpoetry.com).

For readers who doubt he is a lawyer at all, several poems bear the distinctive mark of a legal mind, with one, for example, being presented in tabular format and another elaborately sprinkled with footnotes, both thereby showing a command of certain functions of Word with which most solicitors will feel themselves somewhat over-familiar. If that was not giveaway enough, the final piece in the collection is called ‘Disclaimer’, though in true Adam Taylor style, it is a world away from the standard disclaimers used in legal practice.

God’s face in your gazpacho is an entertaining read that cannot fail to strike a chord with readers. It is an unusual and original collection of poetry that constantly reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously."

Law Society’s Gazette, September 2007

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