Orlam

Nine-year-old Ira-Abel Rawles lives on Hook Farm in the village of UNDERWHELEM. Next to the farm is Gore Woods, Ira''s sanctuary, overseen by Orlam, the all-seeing lamb''s eyeball who is Ira-Abel''s guardian and protector. Here, drawing on the rituals, children''s songs, chants and superstitions of the rural West Country of England, Ira-Abel creates the twin realm through which she can make sense of an increasingly confusing and frightening world. Orlam follows Ira and the inhabitants of UNDERWHELEM month by month through the last year of her childhood innocence. The result is a poem-sequence of light and shadow - suffused with hints of violence, sexual confusion and perversion, the oppression of family, but also ecstatic moments in sunlit clearings, song and bawdy humour. The broad theme is ultimately one of love - carried by Ira''s personal Christ, the constantly bleeding soldier-ghost Wyman-Elvis, who bears ''The Word'': Love Me Tender. Orlam is not only a remarkable coming-of-age tale, but the first full-length book written in the Dorset dialect for many decades. Orlam also reveals P J Harvey as not only one of the most talented songwriters of the age, but a gifted poet - whose formal skill, transforming eye and ear for the lyric line has produced a strange and moving poem like no other.

Préface
Orlam reveals PJ Harvey as not only one of the most talented songwriters of the age, but a gifted poet whose formal skill, transforming eye and ear for the lyric line has produced a strange and moving poem like no other.

Auteur

PJ Harvey is one of the most profound and important artists of her generation. She formed her eponymous band in 1991, and has earned commercial and critical acclaim ever since the release of her debut album Dry, including the Mercury Music Prize in 2001 for her album Stories From the City, Stories from the Sea and again in 2011 with Let England Shake­ the only artist to have ever achieved this honour. She has recorded with industry legend John Peel, worked on soundtracks for films such asBasquiat and the television series Six Feet Under, and has collaborated with an extraordinary range of musicians, including Thom Yorke, Nick Cave, and Bjork. PJ Harvey paints, draws, sculpts, and writes poetry. In December 2013 she was awarded an MBE for services to music.