A Family Behind Glass

Matthew Hedley Stoppard''s poetry has been compared to both Edward and Dylan Thomas, along with Simon Armitage and Paul Farley. A Family Behind Glass is set in a zone not unlike Farley''s Edgelands, sharply defining elements of both the urban and the pastoral.

The collection acts like a scrapbook of a 90s childhood: the rusting swing-sets, the Ladybird waistcoats. Stoppard''s attention then shifts to the here and now, and the realities of life as a father – "a double helix / that twists in both our blood" – presenting them, like the family behind glass, almost within touching distance.

"He weaves the everyday into wonderfully unravelling works of art."
James Nash

Matthew Hedley Stoppard was born in Derbyshire in 1985. Widely published in magazines and anthologies, a recording of his poetry, Insect Eucharist and Other Poems, was released on vinyl in 2012. He now works as a journalist, and lives in Leeds.

Matthew Hedley Stoppard''s poetry has been compared to both Edward and Dylan Thomas, along with Simon Armitage and Paul Farley. A Family Behind Glass is set in a zone not unlike Farley''s Edgelands, sharply defining elements of both the urban and the pastoral.

The collection acts like a scrapbook of a 90s childhood: the rusting swing-sets, the Ladybird waistcoats. Stoppard''s attention then shifts to the here and now, and the realities of life as a father – "a double helix / that twists in both our blood" – presenting them, like the family behind glass, almost within touching distance.

"He weaves the everyday into wonderfully unravelling works of art."
James Nash

Matthew Hedley Stoppard was born in Derbyshire in 1985. Widely published in magazines and anthologies, a recording of his poetry, Insect Eucharist and Other Poems, was released on vinyl in 2012. He now works as a journalist, and lives in Leeds.