Behind Prim Suburban Walls by Daphne Milne
This was one of two winners in the Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize Competition 2025. Daphne Milne's portrait of a small English town is affectionate but acute. The small snobberies of its better-off residents don't escape her sardonic eye; she records the fears of some of its ageing citizens, the local events that mark the changing seasons, the rural landscape that's never far from sight of the neat walled gardens. Individuals are celebrated: 'Kate' who's planning her hundredth birthday party and dreading getting 'really old' (she's ninety-two); 'Jim', who 'leads a quietly important life' and she kindly sketches the lives of children and young people in this bustling community. And among the self-contained suburban dwellings walks Kevin, the cat from No 3, who strolls from house to house, 'observing the shenanigans / through his glass green eyes'. Daphne Milne has a talent for sharp observation and story-telling that makes this collection a poetic page-turner. She draws readers into the small worlds of a suburban community's residents, their hopes and disappointments and their secret lives, with a sure-footed, confident flow of language and images, in the footsteps of Dylan Thomas' 'Under Milkwood'. Comments by reviewers: 'Daphne Milne is a most observant poet, so here are poems which see it all go on, whilst emanating a playfulness both dry and compassionate. ‘Behind innocent looking walls other lives occur' she writes – and in this collection the sense of neighbourhood threads through the poems, with reappearances by houses, people, ghosts – and flaneur cats. This is crafted, clever, experienced writing – Milne so adept at completing a poem: ‘He's the man with the bouncy heels / who keeps happiness in his hat'. Behind her suburban walls, the struggles of other lives are noted and recorded, but Milne keeps hope alive: ‘Upsets and shenanigans all round/ and yet and yet the world is still a;; right.' - Jean Atkin The humour in Daphne Milne's poems offers quiet surprises - and occasional dark turns - as she turns her attention to the seasons of weather and life. She is a rewardingly sharp observer of love, money, and the amount of human effort invested in both charity and snobbery. Her work brings a powerful sense of generations, of loss and continuity. Her gaze remains steady and perceptive, open to the pleasure and absurdity of experience. Strong, at times unsparing, Daphne Milne's poetry safeguards hope. - Alison Brackenbury
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