Inspired by the stunning visual landscape and sea views from Christabel Lancing’s family cottage in South Devon, Beside a Stranger is her debut poetry collection. It reflects her personal experiences of love and loss; of pain, longing, and joy, exploring some paradoxical aspects of isolation and connection.The poem Beside a Stranger originated from the 9/11 tragedy and its anniversaries—a reminder and insight into the emotions of those who died alongside people they’d never met. It is a spirit-driven memory, mirroring events and narrating, in parallel themes, the love for someone you have never met.This is an emotive, sometimes metaphorical insight into human feelings and reactions. It resonates deeply and is, at times, unable to be read without a catch in the throat.Beside a Stranger takes readers on a journey of emotional and natural description, relating intimately to the individual. Each poem builds upon the next to create a tumultuous, compelling, and restorative narrative.
Christabel Lancing has a Masters degree with Honours in History of Art, from The University of Glasgow. She is also a graduate journalist from the University of London. She has published in The Herald Scotland, worked for Haymarket Publishing and has undertaken research for the acclaimed investigative journalist and author, Mark Hollingsworth.
Christabel is a certified teacher of both English as a Foreign Language and Business English. She has written and produced new English learning and marketing materials.
19th Century French literature is Lancing’s favourite genre and she has a deep interest in art history and painting. Her passion is singing, playing and writing music. She was a member of the world-famous Huddersfield Choral Society for several years before recently moving back to London.
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This deeply personal collection of poems takes the reader back and forth from isolation and pain to hope and togetherness in fluid moments of feeling and being. Through melodic verse that lulls you into safety and then trips you up, these songs explore the waves of feelings that accompany the gaining of wisdom and the loss of youth. Flowing like water, each line carries the reader into Lancing’s rich internal sea. Moving, accomplished and completely human.
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