Oils Simon Currie Paschalis Nikolaou on Richard Burns’s

Paschalis Nikolaou on Richard Burns’s The Blue Butterfly

” Benjamin Zephaniah

Among recent voices

short-listed for the “Arab Booker” for his novel In Praise of Hatred

Credits include The Road to War and the BAFTA-winning American Civil War

Oils Simon Currie Paschalis Nikolaou on Richard Burns’sOils is a gorgeous, beguiling collection of poems where the poise of the delivery belies the emotional, existential turmoil within. Through his portraits of an atheist, a pickpocket and a spinach loving sailor (among others), Stephen Sexton evokes a strange kind of melancholy as he strives to reconcile passion with detachment and profound self doubt with unwavering love.