From Our Own Fire

The Telegraph and Observer Book of the Year, William Letford's "A Macallum" is a prose and poetry tour de force that takes the reader into a future where an artificial intelligence rules the world and a working-class family uses their wits to live off the land. It blends sci-fi and hunter-gatherer into a coherent story in the pages of a stonemason's journal. The Macallum family combines their skills to reconnect with the land in a world where the empowered are hell-bent on creating a new utopia. Letford's storytelling is gritty and beautiful, and the sofas in our houses were sinkholes.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 112 pages
Publication date: 31 August 2023
Publisher: Carcanet Press Ltd

Longlisted for Scotland's National Book Awards (Poetry Book of the Year) 2024, "A Macallum" has been praised by "The Telegraph" and "The Observer" as a "prose and poetry tour de force of storytelling" that has the narrative punch of a novel. It is a new departure for the poet, and for poetry itself. It takes the reader into the not-too-distant future, where an artificial intelligence rules the world, and a working-class family uses their wits to live off the land. William Letford blends prose and his inimitable poetry: sci-fi and hunter-gatherer are merged into a coherent story in the pages of a stonemason's journal. "You won't see the best of a Macallum until you put something in their fist," says Letford, introducing the family. "Joiner, nurse, stonemason, hairdresser, plumber, gardener. Lorna even repairs vintage watches. That's the quantum mechanics of manual labour." We join the Macallum family as they combine their skills to reconnect with the land in a world where the empowered are hell-bent on creating a new utopia. Joe, the stonemason, records in his journal the struggles and successes of a carnival of characters. They hurl grace and humour at a future that is being shaped by a single, powerful entity. Letford's storytelling is gritty and beautiful. "A Macallum," it seems to me now, is made to move, to think on the run. The sofas in our houses were sinkholes. The actors on a fifty-two-inch flat screen – shadows on a cave wall.

Weight: 154g
Dimension: 134 x 216 x 12 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781800173439