The title of this collection of essays refers to a tailor's mannequin that Alfred Brendel spotted in a shop window in Arezzo, a small Tuscan town. And so, in his delightful new collection, great masters of nonsense meet great masters of music.
Brownjohn's new book, intriguingly titled A Bottle, is one of his most varied and resourceful to date, featuring not only characteristically funny and entertaining poems and mysterious, gripping narratives (the title poem) but also moving tributes and elegies, love poems, and some absorbing social observation.
