He's an origami poet and the pages turn from horses to white capped waves to Sargasso seas to bathetic abyss and back. Jason Roush * Popsublime * John McCullough is a delight to read, the poems sit there waiting for you to look at them again. Regardless of how far this achievement carries him - and all indications promise that the ascent will surely be a lofty one - my affection will remain for the figure at the end of his poem "The Dictionary Man," the lone boy who's asleep at his desk, dreaming over the words. Fulminare * At the core of John McCullough's The Frost Fairs is a hard-won and solid-as-granite foundation, a lasting literary achievement that's replete with range, control, and ambition.
Read all in one go, the quiet play of each interaction risks blurring into the next, as skaters and stallholders on the arrested Thames. Ultimately, this collection needs to be dipped into, in order to get the most impact from each poem. Suzi Feay * The Independent Books of the Year * Tipped with voyeurism, each of the poems within displays a real lightness of touch and mischievous freedom, manifested as whisper and anecdote concerning lives glimpsed in passing. Paul Burston * Head Judge for the Polari First Book Prize * In his fine debut collection The Frost Fairs, John McCullough turns out tender love poems and imaginative thought experiments with equal aplomb. It's also surprisingly mature for a first book - a debut which doesn't feel like a debut. The Frost Fairs isn't a one-note collection, but one that covers many themes and strikes many chords, from modern transatlantic relationships to hidden gay lives from the past. The judges were impressed with the polish and precision of the language, the confidence of the writing and the scope of the work.
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