Sex with Elvis
Angela Readman
(Biscuit Press) 2005

Buy "Sex With Elvis"

How’d it happen?
Sex with Elvis came about through the Biscuit Poetry Competition in 2004. I rarely enter competitions, and have never entered a competition of this type, where part of the prize is publication. But at the time I had a body of new work I felt was developing into a collection, and had no publisher.

Origins
The work originated in a commission from The Hydrogen Jukebox in November 2003, for which I was asked to produce work to be performed with a musician. This was the first time I had worked with a musician, and the first commission I ever received. I chose to work with Shaun Lennox, who I didn’t know, but had seen play guitar once in Middlesbrough. The process was that I asked Shaun to send me a tape of some music he had wrote that had no lyrics, and I then wrote some new poems inspired by the music. Maybe it was because the commission was for Hydrogen Jukebox in Darlington, and part ran by Boro poet Andy Willoughby, or maybe it was because Shaun is from Middlesbrough, but I ended up writing poems about Middlesbrough, and some of its council estates (including Easterside were my grandparents lived and my mother was brought up, and Priestfields and Netherfields were my father lived and I went to school.)

After the commission had been done I was left with new poems I wasn’t sure would work without music or not. I had written them for music, and was now uncertain what to do with them. I felt as if I had nothing to lose and entered these poems in the Biscuit Competition. (Imagine my surprise when I won! They phoned me on a Sunday morning at about 10am, when I was still in bed, and to be honest I didn’t really believe them.)

The Process
Having won, I was left with the realisation that I had to knuckle down and finish the collection, and I spent the next ten months writing more poems and finishing poems off (ending up with more poems than I needed.)

What I was going to call the book
Slag
The Museum of Ordinary things

I couldn’t decide between these two titles and I asked poets I knew what they thought. Kevin Cadwallender said he didn’t like either title! One of them sounded too much like Beamish he said!

Titles for Dummies: Look at poems carefully, and make a list of lines you like

I Did this on Kevin’s advice. It was then that stumbled across the line sex with Elvis. Instantly I knew this was my title, and having decided this I also knew that the collection was no longer finished, and I had to spend time writing more poems.. During this time I also wrote some sex poems, as this seemed to be missing from my collection of poems about council estates, sex with Elvis would be able to incorporate this. When I was done with writing I then had the mammoth task of organising the order of the poems; to do this I printed everything out and spread them on my office floor where they remained for some weeks. Each day I would go in and look at the order, rearrange a few, then look again. It seemed easy to select the first and last poem; it was just everything in between that was the problem!

Cover Issues
The next question, was that of a cover. The problem was that Biscuit had required me to sign a contract in which it was made clear that the publisher has the actual say in the cover, at the time I had tried to negotiate this, but it hadn’t been possible (as Brian pointed out since the publisher pays for the printing it is their decision.)

Also I was faced with the problem that pictures of Elvis cannot be used without paying Gracelands for the honour (Gracelands is notoriously litigious about the ownership of Elvis’ image.) This left me with the option of trying to find an Elvis impersonator who would be willing to have his picture taken and used, or finding another way. Unfortunately the one Elvis impersonator I knew about, who used to live on Easterside estate had recently emmigrated to Spain to become Elvis full time! I thought about the themes of the book some more, and came upon the doll idea, which would also relate to the themes of childhood, and gender relations in the book, and I began the hunt for suitable dolls on Ebay. Once I had the dolls I spent some time taking photo’s of them, which would act as a template for the type of thing I wanted for the cover (at a push I would be able to use one of these photo’s for the cover as it stood.)

My idea was to have something to show Brian about the cover I wanted which I hoped he may then like and agree to use. If you are ever in a similar position this is a good idea, as it is a lot easier to persuade a publisher with actual concrete images than the idea of them. A friend of mine, Robin Cowings, is a professional photographer and designer and he had expressed some interest in doing my cover, so I gave him the photo’s I had taken and my dolls and asked him to come up with something with this feel. He came back to me with three mock ups of similar covers using the dolls, and I picked the one I liked best and showed it to Brian Lister. Fortunately Brian loved it, and said I could use it, though he could only pay a nominal fee for the cover’s design.

Blurbs
Since I didn’t know Brian Lister too well, and he had very little knowledge of me, I decided it would also be a good idea to approach people for blurbs for the book myself. This isn’t a bad idea, afterall, you know who has encountered your work and given you encouragement in the past, but your publisher may not. I approached some of the people who had been supportive in the past, and sent them the collection after I asked if they would be willing to have a look at it. You will probably encounter some refusals if you try this yourself (some people just have no blurb policies, or are affiliated with certain presses only for blurbs) but some people will be happy to help and flattered that their opinion means so much to you.

Another thing that happened with Elvis is I did ask how many review copies would be sent out (6) and the publisher let me send addresses of places I felt would be good places for it to be sent. At a later date I sent out a few more review copies myself, as other possible avenues for review became known to me.

Alternative Covers of Sex with Elvis by Robin Cowings.

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Photo’s of my dicking about with dolls to have something to show for what I was after!

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Blurbs for Sex with Elvis

“Angela Readman’s work is a carefully stitched embroidery of the familiar and the often overlooked or taken for granted- she makes pictures that stay in your mind long after the poem has been read. Sharply observant,dry, savage and wholly authentic. Readman’s work is as far from the chattering classes as it’s possible to be. Genuine work from a genuine new voice- a voice which will be heard.”

Joolz

“Angela Readman’s poems are like nails, hammered home truths, hard statements in the tenderness of skin. They force deep wounds,jar the vision and leave gouts of blood. If that was all they were they would be startling, but they are also full of heart; sometimes the hearts are fractured, under siege or rallying against overwhelming odds but they are hearts that hold in them a fierce loyal human love that spills out from the darkest of places. Now that is truly remnarkable.”

Kevin Cadwallender

“Edge, vigour, humour. The Boro is in Angela Readman’s work. Here is a poet who makes her sound with one sturdy boot in the snow. Listen for it”

Gillian Allnutt

“Readman casts her eye on ordinary life with a sharp knife. This is witty, astuite poetry of the inventive kind. Sex with Elvis feels important, as all good poetry should. It brings us closely into the tight hard world of estate, power and love, literally cutting the past open. Poetry with an edge. Read it, taste it! It’s bloody wonderful!”

Julia Darling

My favourite poems in Sex with Elvis are: Sex with Elvis, Pornographic Snow People.

Poems I never read in it are: Primrose Valley, In the Best Room.

Acklam Rainbow

The lass with the Frankie says chest,
before any of us knew what it meant.
Twirling her silver baton in the street,
Not once missing the beat, she throws
electric taped broom shank to air;
catches the twist with wide hands.

I bounce a ball off the garages,
have no reason to talk here.
As girls with long socks hang around
awaiting instyructions, trill glockenspiels
as her theme tune, she marches on,
never gets round to joining the jazz band.
Knees high, back straight
under pink sky and sunset streetlight
in her own weekly papade,
Born in the USA, here, now, in the Boro.

I listen to the nights drawing closer
when she not be here.
Tinned Cheery Pink and Apple Blossom
White spills its petals, leaves its stone
in the shadow of the flats.

Angela Readman (Sex with Elvis)