Book Launch by Spoz and Holly
Dual Book Launch of How to Leave a Body by Holly Winter-Hughes and Playful Poignant Pottymouth by Spoz on Saturday 31st May 2025 at the Heath Bookshop, Kings Heath, Birmingham (both published by Verve Poetry Press).
What more could us Birmingham verse-lovers wish for? We had it all – the intimacy of the award-winning Heath Bookshop, the work of two powerful poets, and all on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
Our time together was packed with treats. First treat was that both Holly and Spoz had made the trip to share their work with us. Both poets operate widely across the Worcestershire, Birmingham, and West Midlands areas in the second., Holly (poet, researcher, facilitator) focussing on raising the voices of under-represented people through her work as CEO of The Word Association CIC, and Spoz (former Birmingham Poet Laureate and poet-in-residence at Birmingham City FC) bringing poetry alive in schools and performing in a multi-media kind of way on radio, at festivals and gigs, both as a poet and with his band, Vaseline. For a couple of hours in Kings Heath, we had these talented, generous people all to ourselves and we knew we were lucky.
A second treat was the fabulous Heath Bookshop complete with Kate Bush coffee table, independent bookshop of the year for 2025 and rightfully so – goodwill seeps from the bookshelves. The warmth and safety provided by this venue was ideal on this occasion for the honest, sometimes raw, but tender session that followed. The bookshop itself was a character in our midst.
The treat of the day was, of course, the poetry which was served up in a mouth-watering (in Spoz’s case a pottymouth-watering) sandwich. First, a slice of passionate, playful fare from Spoz, followed by a session of moving, ultimately healing poems from Holly, then return to Spoz for a final layer of strong stuff to stimulate our lugholes. We even got a dessert, a lively Q&A to send us away replete. Splitting the offerings in this way was a masterstroke as it allowed for delivery of strong and often intense material but in waves so that nothing became too overwhelming and we could move through spells of different moods and moments safe in the hands of expert performers.
Spoz began by introducing us to his glorious self, the son of immigrants from the ‘heel’ of Italy; being called John by teachers instead of his fabulous real name, Giovanni Esposito; his love affair with Birmingham City FC celebrated by a Blues carrier bag hung as a backdrop on the bookshop coat-stand. He then lit up our dopamine channels with his poems including such striking delights as Chris Packham’s Really Ace, I Wanna Be Jaws, and Pigs in Banquets. He left us with images that linger – Chris Packham as a don, Spoz as lover and good guy, as tiramisu, as flint, as an iron fist wrapped up in a velvet glove.
Holly took us on a different journey, along a life path lived through, on, inside and outside a body and, in doing so, gifted us powerful insights around trauma, healing and hope. With her first line, I left my body and stole into a townhouse (from her stunning opening poem, Home Making (when your body throws you out), she held us rapt. Holly’s poetry paints vivid images and weaves in profound understanding of the physical patterns made by trauma – a concealed sentence wrote itself up the bone pillars of my spine, the crackle in your blood, terracotta tongue and weaves intricately the thread of ‘house/shed/temple’ imagery so resonant of Freud’s analysis of the identification of buildings and the self. This was visceral and emotionally intelligent poetry delivered with both vulnerability and strength, and moving tenderness for self.
Spoz returned to leave us with a forever image give in his final treat The Turd That Wouldn’t Flush. Thanks for that, mate.
As ever the true enchantment lay in the people: the honest, self-deprecating poets who apologised if their work might offend or hurt us and then opened themselves up to us so bravely, the engagement and curiosity of the audience who entered energetically into the Q&A and enabled us all to consider together where poems come from, how they differ from song lyrics, and whether they are cathartic to write and to hear. We left feeling hugely grateful for poets, bookshops, and their commitment to language and love.
Find out more
By: Bernie Lynch
Upcoming Events for Holly and Spoz
- Thursday 19th June at 6.30pm – Holly headlining at Dear Listener, Script Haven Bookshop
- Wednesday 23rd July 7-10pm – Spoz and Holly Launch at Satellite of Love, The Loco Club, Bristol
- Speak Your Mind Writers’ Group, usually first Wednesday of the month, 5.30-6.30pm at The Old Needle Works, Redditch
Upcoming Events in and around the Heath Bookshop
- Thursday 12th June 6:30pm – 7:30pm – Sally Chidlow ‘Glam Fashion Talk’ at The Heath Bookshop
- Wednesday 18th June 6:30pm – 7:30pm – Mel Pennant (A Murder for Miss Hortense) & Natalie Marlow (Needless Alley & The Red Hollow) at The Heath Bookshop
- Friday 20th June 6:30pm – 7:30pm – Tawseef Khan ‘Determination’ at The Heath Booskhop
- Saturday 21st June 5:00pm – 7:00pm -Screen B14 and The Heath Bookshop present ‘Orlando’ at The Heath Bookshop
- Friday 27th June 7:30pm – 9:00pm – Chris Cleverley & Jess Vincent ‘Acoustic Hometown Concert’ at The Heath Bookshop
- Monday 30th June 6:30pm-7:30pm – Monday 30th June, 6:30-7:30pm Emma Slade Edmondson & Nicole Ocran ‘The Half of It’ at The Heath Bookshop
- Sunday 27th July – 2pm – 3pm – The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever – Birmingham! York Road, Kings Heath
- Tuesday 14th October, 7:30-9pm – ‘What Have I Done?’ An Evening With Ben Elton at The Bradshaw Hall, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire