About Me
BOOK OUT NOW!! 'Only Not Walking', available from Smokestack Books, for 5.95. Can be bought here: http://www.northernpublishers.co.uk/authors/Niall-Spooner-Ha
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NIALL SPOONER-HARVEY!! In his FIRST APPEARANCE IN POETRY COMPETITION EVER, Niall won the Farrago London Slam Championship, and in his THIRD, he won the Farrago UK London Slam championship. Since then he has performed with the likes of Ed Harcourt, Jamie T, Jack Penate, Jeremy Warmsley, Emmy the Great and Simon Mastrantone, and has appeared at Truck Festival, the End of the Road Festival and the Big Green Gathering. He is an over-educated, tweed-clad, well-spoken ASJDFADGASH member of the HKASGDBW middle-class SHAGDJHVNBE moral majority. Sometimes he writes about disability issues, sometimes he doesn't. His book, 'Only Not Walking' was released in July 2006 to reviews that made him really, really excited.
WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT NIALL SPOONER-HARVEY:
'Here’s a lesson about prejudice. Don’t assume you won’t like books by slam poets... or that you won’t like books on ‘worthy’ subjects... Indeed, don’t assume books from Andy Croft’s left of centre Middlesbrough press Smokestack will be about whippets and Federation ale: Niall Spooner-Harvey’s magnificent book blows all those assumptions out of the water...he does it effortlessly...It is incredibly funny, for one. Not just wry or amusing, producing a smile at the clever pun or deft allusion, but rip-roaringly comic and mordant. I fell off the sofa reading it. And its sharp insights, conveyed with superb poetic economy, outlive the belly laughs...This is the real thing, and you should go out and buy a copy.' James Roderick Burns, Sphinx Chapbook Reviews
'He is clever, witty, funny, wry. This is, unfortunately, a short collection, eighteen poems. They are all instantly likeable without being throwaway. Spooner-Harvey makes his serious points through charming, hilarious and downright bawdy humour. The only pity is the collection isn't longer. He is a superbly individual and original writer and the sensibility behind this book is self-deprecating, generous and courageous. Delightful stuff.' Alan Dent, Penniless Press
'Niall is a poet/comedian/poet who never fails to simultaneously squeeze laughter and fear out of on-lookers. Niall's delivery, wording and imagery is second to none... if you ever get the chance to see Niall, never pass it up. This is the second time I've seen him, and poetry has never entertained me as much. He's well worth the entry fee alone!' Tom Matthews, Don't Worry About The Government magazine
'The aforementioned poetry became the other highlight of the evening. Niall Spooner-Harvey's Mad, Me and All My Cats Are Dead prompted first confusion and then fits of laughter from the crowd; the only down point of the evening was that there wasn't more time allocated to him.' Louise Evans, Don't Worry About The Government - reviewing Jeremy Warmsley's EP launch gig at the Luminaire in Kilburn, Apr 8th
'I should have been a bit more aware of his work. Last night he was absolutely superb, and delivered the kind of performance that could renew one's faith in the performance poetry genre, even if one were especially jaded. By turns savage, satirical, high tempo, gentle and sometimes outright surreal, the man never really resorted to clichés and knew exactly when to take his foot off the accelerator. Above and beyond that, some of the comic poetry he delivered actually was incredibly funny and would have stood up perfectly well in a comedy venue, which is something that an incredibly large proportion of alleged comic poets could never rightfully claim. This could go on to be the best performance of 2006, though that remains to be seen.' Dave Bryant - who paid to come to a poetry gig and hadn't seen or met me before, which is what counts! - on his LiveJournal, Aug 2006
'The best performance of 2006 - no-one really matched him' Dave Bryant again - and he watches a lot of poetry!
'this evening of beautiful acoustic, gentle ambience and the best cappuccino in town is improved only by the humour of local poet Niall Spooner-Harvey' Varsity, reviewing Songs in the Dark in Cambridge, 2003
'His rapid-fire fury is bracing... he's expressive, if not precise, and witty, if not controlled... if he cuts back on the feedback and ups the melody, but keeps the fire in his belly, he'll be really good' The Crack Magazine on 'Only Not Walking' - Book of the Month Sep 2006
'...addresses the experience of living with an invisible disability in an impatient and unaccepting world. Hard-hitting and precise, humble and confrontational, these poems deal head-on with disability, deaths, love and being pushed around in colourful blue buggies' Smokestack Books
'good stuff... mischievous' Philip Pullman, Guest Editor, May Anthologies 2004
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