Cricket was a major part of the poet Zaffar Kunial's childhood when growing up near the Edgbaston cricket ground in Birmingham. This pamphlet gathers six of his new poems on the subject, along with a series of previously published 'Extras'. Whether capturing legends of the sport, such as Imran Khan captaining his first Test match, or a shy encounter with Brian Johnston; the poet's boyish ambitions of becoming a professional player; experimenting with time in an elliptical sequence on hours at the Oval; or the timeless still point of a hit ball - Six is a collection for lovers of poetry and cricket alike. Reviews for 'Six': 'Kunial’s style is a wise vernacular that Auden would have loved . . . Six is a pamphlet to read and re-read; its words are so plain and so well put together that you won’t realise until much later how permanently they’ve marked you, like a grass stain.' (Alex Hayden-Williams, Varsity) 'Zaffar Kunial, King for a Summer of The Oval, the country’s best pace bowler of the human heart.' (John Andrews, Caught By The River)
Author
Zaffar Kunial's 'Us' (Faber & Faber, 2018) was shortlisted for a number of awards including the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Costa Poetry Award. 'Kunial’s gift is to examine language in a clinically precise manner to measure belonging, distance and love.' (John Glenday) ' With an impressive clutch of techniques, Kunial is a fine teller of stories.' (Alison Brackenbury, PN Review) Reviews for 'Us': 'Rich in form and reverent references, Us transports the reader from the hills of Pakistan to the schoolgrounds of Stratford-upon-Avon, from George Herbert to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.' (Maria Crawford, Financial Times, BOOKS OF THE YEAR) 'His first full book, which has come together slowly, patiently, over several years... He can do clear-eyed and tender inside a single poem, without any hint of glibness. Fun fact: he used to earn his living writing verse for Hallmark cards.' (The 20 best poetry books of 2018, The Spinoff, New Zealand) 'Zaffar Kunial possesses that rare quality of negative capability which Keats first identified in Shakespeare (a guiding spirit in this, Kunial’s first collection); the poems hold us among mysteries and doubts, without pronouncing or attempting to resolve. Their beauty lies in their indecisiveness – their quiet refusal to settle matters or hold to a single view.' (Rebecca Watts, Times Literary Supplement) 'Highlights of the year include the Heaney-esque lyricism of British-Indian poet Zaffar Kunial's accomplished debut Us.' (Tristram Fane Saunders, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year) Reviews for 'Six': 'Kunial’s style is a wise vernacular that Auden would have loved . . . Six is a pamphlet to read and re-read; its words are so plain and so well put together that you won’t realise until much later how permanently they’ve marked you, like a grass stain.' (Alex Hayden-Williams, Varsity) 'Zaffar Kunial, King for a Summer of The Oval, the country’s best pace bowler of the human heart.' (John Andrews, Caught By The River)
