Bold in the Life by Jeremy Dixon
Jeremy Dixon’s Bold in the Life is an electrifying affirmation of Polari, the coded language once palavered through queer spaces, now reanimated in poetry that is unapologetic, irreverent, and deeply celebratory. Moving between historical echoes and contemporary queer existence, Dixon’s work pulses with wit, defiance, and linguistic play, queering the act of translation itself. These poems are both homage and reinvention, rejecting nostalgia while amplifying resilience, speaking to the past while remaining resolutely present. A linguistic and cultural act of resistance, Bold in the Life asserts itself with joyous subversion and unflinching originality.
PRAISE for Bold in the Life:
Bold in The Life happened upon me as sussed successive tweakings of multifarious pleasure nodes and pop-cultural Uranian collective memory. In Jeremy’s twistesse of queer nuance and vaulting familiarities, the out-of-time yesteryear conjoins in joyous throt with a here-and-now that it colours with a fabulously engaging and off-kilter vitality and joy for life. His language wrung to re-troll epiphanic in fantastical swaggering nostalgics that are, at once, totes specific, yet essentially so universally experiential. Highly recommended.
— Barney Ashton-Bullock
In this captivating collection the poems swish open in fabulosity! Though Polari now languishes, primarily, in PAST gaymens’/queer mens’ consciousnesses, it shows us how the past informs the present; Jeremy inhabits that powerful space between eras so we are reminded that queer male culture is alive and well: it has merely changed its manifestations, and we should curate and grow it.
— Steven Benson
From an actor moaning ‘fuck me’ in Almodovar’s Law of Desire to George Michael waving his willy in Will Rogers Park, Jeremy’s playful poems test the boundaries of gay sexuality and social propriety. This is a joyful collection – witty, pithy and deliciously queer.
— Paul Burston
A vivid collection about how those who don’t belong find a way to fit, and to thrive while doing it. In the vibrant language of Polari, Jeremy explores the uniquely poignant experience of ageing as a queer man, and the tools we use to survive. Dress-up, pleasure, play and protest – all of them are here, wounded, bold, beautiful.
— Matthew Haigh
Crackling with energy, wit and queer subversion, Bold in the Life is a camp fire of a book. One that takes us from Cardiff Bay to Albert Dock via the Village, the Cottage, Jarman’s shingle, Orton’s library, the disco sparkle and dirty shopfloor. It is, as described in the introduction, a poetic journey via Polari but one that is personal as well as political, nostalgic at times, a reclamation of once-hidden lives and loves, and a celebration of gay life and all our queeroes, ancient and modern. Get your ogles on this bona glossy, for Jeremy’s poetic voice sings in these pages, bringing the recent past into the present with a passionate and vibrant presence.
— JP Seabright
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