Pauline Prior-Pitt

My collection, “Beyond the Bite” has five short discreet sections in which I consider the position of women in war, reflect on relationships and old friends, examine the dislocation of Covid, take you to my favourite shores, and share my experience of loss. As always there is humour and sadness.

 

Poems about North Uist, written in English with Gaelic translation’s, touches on the history of North Uist from ancient times until the present pandemic, including of course, poems about the sea and the shore.

 

‘Written on the Shore’ has been a work in progress during the last two years. It is a sequence of poems originally scribbled in Pauline’s notebook during her long walks on her favourite Sollas Beach. The overarching theme is one of relationships, real or imagined.

“The poems in this collection are absolutely beautiful and enthralling. Individual poems resonate with others, achieving an overall cadence akin to the ebb and flow of tides.”
Helen Boden

These selected poems are about the preoccupations of women, taken from Pauline’s previous seven collections and brought together under one roof.

They cover birth, death and everything in between – including that mysterious relationship between men and crumbs.

In this revised edition, of Storm Biscuits, Pauline includes more recent poems about the Outer Hebrides, adding different subjects and perspectives to her original collection.

“An evocative collection…these poems have a haunting power both on the page and in performance.” (Lowdham Book Festival)

The poems in this collection reflect life on the island of North Uist,
with its inconstant weather, especially the wind; and on coming to terms with the difficult issues that face us all, especially as we get older.

Pauline writes about the role of women, the juggling act they perform when coping with their men, their families, the domestic scene, their gynaecology, politics, and of course loving and dying.

The original edition of ‚Waiting Women‘ was reprinted seven times. This revised edition, first published in 1999 (with a foreword by Maureen Lipman), includes most of the poems from ‚In the Heat of the Moment‘.

Poems on this CD are taken from two of Pauline’s collections of poems about women: ‚Waiting Women‘ and ‚Addresses & Dreams‘.

The revised edition of ‚Addresses & Dreams‘ includes selected poems from ‚Still Standing in the Plant Pot‘. The poems continue themes that Pauline began in her book ‚Waiting Women‘; poems about women’s lives, their friendships, children, parents, clothes, domestic chores, love and death. In this collection, she takes a look at ageing.

In this collection, Pauline has earthed her inner landcape poems about women’s lives with the island landscape where she now lives.

„Everyone needs a Pauline Prior-Pitt on their bookshelves.“ (Maureen Lipman)

„Her poems, alternately funny and poignant, and deeply rooted in the life of the Hebridean island she inhabits, beautifully reflect the preoccupations of a woman as she grows older. Covering birth, death and everything in between – including the mysterious relationship between men and crumbs.“ (Sharon Blackie, Two Ravens Press)

In this collection, Pauline Prior-Pitt reflects on living close to the sea on the Isle of North uist and the preoccupations of a woman as she gets older. As in her earlier books, there is that quirky mixture of humour and poignancy that we have come to expect from her writing.

Handmade, hand-stitched pamphlets

Winner of the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award for pamphlet poetry. Between October 2004 and January 2005, Pauline visited Solas beach on North Uist regularly, stood at the edge of the sea and wrote about how it was on that day. The poems are bound together in this pamphlet, designed and handmade by Pauline.

CD which goes with my pamphlet, North Uist Sea Poems. The music was composed by Catherine Eunson for cello, flute, fiddle, harp and my speaking voice. It beautifully evokes the sea and the shore in all its moods.

This collection brings together old and new poems about the experience of ageing.

Disappearing Out is a pamphlet of poems which takes a look at the subject of death.

This pamphlet explores the fascination of having grandchildren.