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Poetry
Paperback book with illustrations
Who said what, exactly is an unusual object – a book of playful, punchy, iconoclastic poetry with colourful paintings on its first pages and drawings throughout. Phil Day’s lively, inventive pictures have appeared in other Finlay Lloyd books, but this is a first startling appearance with us for Hartmann Wallis. Or is it?
“…a glorious romp or rant, ranging across history, the minutiae of suburbia, and an acerbic view of the literary and artistic world. The content is enlivening, but the form of the book is an equal part of the pleasure offered. The text is presented in bold, large print, with deliriously smudgy and slapdash illustrations by Phil Day. It is part unhinged journal, part comic, as if Les Murray had decided to write a graphic novel…” The Australian
‘There is joy in wordplay; there are strange segues; there’s dialogue, characters, and narratives; there are allusions to history, religion, art; there’s pathos, even. These poems keep you on your toes, but they also make you laugh…’ Whispering Gums
We received a hint as to who this mysterious author may be in an email from an old friend:
I was thinking over our conversation re who the hell is this Hartmann Wallis. It hit me that it is possible he isn’t who he is making himself out to be. Can’t be sure about anything, but I’ve discovered that Hartmann left behind an ambiguous note about Australian author, Robert Wallace, who in the late 1980s and into the 1990s had 4 books published by the London publisher Victor Gollancz. These were also published by the New York publisher, St Martin’s Press. Now it seems we can be pretty certain that Robert Wallace was a pseudonym. And I have to ask, where does that leave Hartmann himself? The biography in the front of Who said what, exactly (which includes photographs of this possibly invented writer and his imagined-to-be wife) seems an attempt to obscure the identity of the author just as ‘Robert Wallace’ was back in the 1980s-90s. It’s just that ‘Wallis’ and ‘Wallace’ kept me thinking. Anyway, silly old me, full of doubt re just about everything. Have fun and stay warm, Robin.
Poetry
Paperback book with illustrations
Who said what, exactly is an unusual object – a book of playful, punchy, iconoclastic poetry with colourful paintings on its first pages and drawings throughout. Phil Day’s lively, inventive pictures have appeared in other Finlay Lloyd books, but this is a first startling appearance with us for Hartmann Wallis. Or is it?
“…a glorious romp or rant, ranging across history, the minutiae of suburbia, and an acerbic view of the literary and artistic world. The content is enlivening, but the form of the book is an equal part of the pleasure offered. The text is presented in bold, large print, with deliriously smudgy and slapdash illustrations by Phil Day. It is part unhinged journal, part comic, as if Les Murray had decided to write a graphic novel…” The Australian
‘There is joy in wordplay; there are strange segues; there’s dialogue, characters, and narratives; there are allusions to history, religion, art; there’s pathos, even. These poems keep you on your toes, but they also make you laugh…’ Whispering Gums
We received a hint as to who this mysterious author may be in an email from an old friend:
I was thinking over our conversation re who the hell is this Hartmann Wallis. It hit me that it is possible he isn’t who he is making himself out to be. Can’t be sure about anything, but I’ve discovered that Hartmann left behind an ambiguous note about Australian author, Robert Wallace, who in the late 1980s and into the 1990s had 4 books published by the London publisher Victor Gollancz. These were also published by the New York publisher, St Martin’s Press. Now it seems we can be pretty certain that Robert Wallace was a pseudonym. And I have to ask, where does that leave Hartmann himself? The biography in the front of Who said what, exactly (which includes photographs of this possibly invented writer and his imagined-to-be wife) seems an attempt to obscure the identity of the author just as ‘Robert Wallace’ was back in the 1980s-90s. It’s just that ‘Wallis’ and ‘Wallace’ kept me thinking. Anyway, silly old me, full of doubt re just about everything. Have fun and stay warm, Robin.