About the Book

During lockdown Nyanda was at university. She chose to stay in her student accommodation rather than going home to her family. She spent 79 days alone, with deteriorating mental health, trying to study for her degree.

This visceral, astonishing collection from one of the country’s most exciting emerging performance poets explores this unprecedented moment in global history – from a personal and fascinating point of view.

About the Author 

Nyanda Foday was Birmingham’s Young Poet Laureate 2016-2018, and is inspired by the impact that words can have to create, unite, explain and enjoy. She strives to connect with others where she can by sharing and listening to others’ work. Her parents moved from Sierra Leone to London before having Nyanda.

Instagram:  https://instagram.com/nyandafoday

X: https://x.com/nyandaisapoet

What I Thought 

Be warned because this book discusses the COVID-19 pandemic. This is one woman’s experience of our collective struggle. Future history in 62 pages of poetry. 

This is the type of poetry I enjoy, conversational and accessible. And what could be more accessible than reading about our collective experience. But of course within that broad event everyone had their own individual story. I hope more people write and share their individual insights too. 

The opening poem Conversation Topic ends with:

“It should be fine,

So long as we remember to wash our hands.”

And boy does it frustrate me to still see this initial advice on government sites not superseded by talk of Covid’s airborne nature. 

Other poems talk of loneliness, daily walks, hoarding toilet paper, clapping for the NHS and so many zoom calls. About the fear of re-entering a society where everyone around us became unsafe. 

Two other future historic events occurred during the pandemic and each gets their own parallel poem in this collection. 

The murder of Sarah Everard and the subsequent police brutality at the vigil. Foday perfectly expresses the fears that this struck at the core of every woman. 

The murder of George Floyd and the resulting Black Lives Matter marches. The incredulity that it took a period of closing capitalism for white people like me to wake up to the reality of racism and the frustration of everything going back to normal. Disabled people can very much speak to this too. 

The poem Poppy spoke to me personally because I too share Nyanda’s gratitude to four legged saviours. 

And as an Occupational Therapist the poem Creating and most importantly the lines:

“I let myself drift in and out of things. 

I let myself be bad at it”

There is so much pressure to be good at everything that we often forgot to enjoy the process, the mistakes and the simple joy of doing. 

Nyanda’s poems do not speak to the loss of loved ones or her own health. Those are stories for others to write and I hope they do. I want to read them, to understand how others lived these strange years. 

I particularly appreciated that Nyanda’s final poem Post-Pandemic actually reflects back the fact that for many people it’s not all over, not something we can just put in the past. But I think reading things like this and feeling that connection to others can help us all move on. I think this will be a collection I will return to and maybe even write alongside. 

I would urge people to pick up this book when they feel able. You will find more truth in one of these poems than in the upcoming former PM’s entire book. 

Huge thank you to the publisher Anderson Press and Bee At Kaleidoscopic Tours for arranging a gifted copy for the purposes of an honest review. Do check out what the rest of the reviewers thought too.