Tales from Estate: Poetry Review

November 21, 2017 by Ray Morgan

Southend poet Sadie Davidson has had her first poetry collection, Tales from the Estates, published by Whisky & Beards.

The collection takes you on a tour through council estate life, peppered with lively characters, pop-culture and literary references and, impressively, shocking statistics on poverty in the UK. The journey takes you to a place where parents might not have much money but their kids are looked after, have proper family dinners and know a deep sense of love.

Yes, there's bleakness here, and visceral truth, but this collection is also laden with love, and poignancy on the human spirit. Davidson addresses feminism, poverty, the Tory government, motherhood, faith and drug abuse, but she handles them deftly, weaving her words and informing, not lecturing. She's unafraid of being confrontational, but does not judge. She backs up her views with important facts and figures, which is a clever tool to use in poetry, and not one I've seen before.

Perhaps Davidson's shining moment is a wry take on The Night Before Christmas, where a cash-strapped Mum is feeling desperate on Christmas Eve, only to be saved by a dodgy-but-friendly modern-day Father Christmas who provides back-of-a-lorry knock-offs and saves the day. On the surface it doesn't sound heartwarming, but the way Davidson writes this parody in homage to the children's classic manages to be both touching and funny in one take.

I'd encourage you to read this collection if you have a heart, care about people, are angry at the injustices of the world for women, marginalised communities and developing countries. I'd encourage you to read this collection if you like your poetry hard-hitting but informative and heartfelt. If you've not seen Sadie Davidson perform poems I'd also encourage you to see these performed live.

Sadie Davidson is a writer, performance poet, and poetry slam champion. She is a co-host of the Estuary Fringe Festival's open mic event, Dangerous Poetry, and lives with her partner and two children in Essex. “Tales from the Estate” is her first collection. Her CD “Council House and Silent” was released in late 2017 under Spoken Label. Find her at www.facebook.com/sadiedavidsonpoet. You can also buy the book from whiskyandbeards.co.uk