The Theatre of Confection

In this her third collection of poetry following on from ‘The Shirley Valentine Syndrome’ and ‘Bringing Home the Bacon’ Barbieri returns to her home in Liverpool for another sprinkling of nostalgia. Whilst other poems in this collection continue to show her love of ‘Ekphrastic’ poetry her fans will also be pleased to see she has included a number of poems confirming her uniquely eccentric sense of humour. ‘It appears that comedy shoots out of the family tree having regards to an ancestor Richard ‘Dicky’ Suett (1755-1805) George III’s favourite clown and star of Drury Lane for 25 years. Charles Lamb also lovingly recorded him as follows ‘Shakespeare foresaw him when he framed his fools and jesters. They all have the true Suett stamp a loose and shambling gait a slippery tongue this last the ready midwife to a without-pain-delivered jest; in words light as air venting truths deep as the centre...’ Charles Lamb - Essays of Elia (1822)