A Lifetime’s work, in one volume

And now, there are three titles from Ings Press! In addition to the stories of Bradford District Lines and the York-based family poems of Ghosts and Ginnels, the third book in the Ings Press catalogue is So Let It Be: Collected Poems by Colin Speakman.

Though the collection is very much available, through a number of bookshops as well as on the Ings Press website, its profile has been low to date, partly because of the absence of an in-person launch event.

That was all due to change on the evening of Wednesday 15 July, with a launch planned for Ings Press’s local, The Triangle. However, the England football team had other ideas even if, in view of the result, may football fans might have preferred to spend the evening listening to poetry!

Because of this postponement (the event will be rearranged at the Triangle in September), the first launch for Colin’s book will be on Wharfedale home turf for him – at the Ilkley Manor House at 6PM on Friday 28th August. Tickets will be £10 but So Let It Be, RRP £16.00, will be on sale for just £10.00 on the night.

While the other Ings Press publications to date reference a single city, the poems in this volume range the world but are very much rooted in Yorkshire and Wharfedale in particular. As Ed Reiss states in his Foreword: “Colin Speakman knows his area. He has published some fifty books, mostly on Yorkshire’s history, culture, and topography. His knowledge and experience run deep within these poems, not bolted on. In the best work no gap can be seen between the knowledge of the poet and the verbal artefact which is the completed poem. There is a full integration of sensibility.”

What’s more, Colin’s events are always much more than just a reading. With a wealth of historical reference in the poems, Colin’s lifetime of research, knowledge and curiosity will bring the poems, already vivid on the page, to even more colourful life. Be there to experience it.