Stuart Handysides

the last one picked

Having grown up in a deeply religious family, the author reflects not just on the personal aspects of childhood, family, love, loneliness and death in these poems, but on the even wider concerns of social and political change. He contemplates time itself and points in time: past and those still passing, alongside the persistence of memories and dreams, all juxtaposed against the more general themes of art and music, work and the inevitability of ageing.

ISBN 978-1-0684934-2-3

Paperback

52 pages

£9.50 +P&P

PREORDERS NOW BEING TAKEN PUBLICATION DATE 12/12/2025

THE AUTHOR

Stuart Handysides grew up in the Midlands but lived in London and the South East for many years. He began writing as a general practitioner, continued while working as an editor of medical publications, and also started writing poetry. Stuart’s poems have appeared in magazines and anthologies and he has had success in competitions. His play Gleaming for an Instant was performed online in 2020. Stuart ran the Ware Poets competition for 11 years.

A WINNER OF INDIGO FIRST POETRY COMPETITION 2024

“This lovely first collection is poignant, humorous and nostalgic, with poems full of insight, close observation and amused self-deprecation.”

~ Maggie Brookes-Butt

“Such a pleasure, these surprising poems, not least in their voice and always interesting subject matter. At times a sparky sort of Larkin, the last one picked is very much a first in my book.”

~ Peter Sansom

"From a family where faith eclipsed football may have meant being ‘last one picked’, but might also have honed Stuart Handysides’ rare on-the-sidelines focus, allowing him to cast an engagingly cool eye – wry, empathetic and consistently surprising – on the passage through life, the afterlife, the everyday, and the ineffable elasticity of time."

~ Cahal Dallat