Outside The All Stars

...it's fascinating, beautifully described. The work bursts with profoundly observed detail, long winding sentences leading us through the greasy spoons and seedy side streets of London life.... He's clever, funny and compassionate.

...cinematic narratives that strut along on a pentameter beat, with an eye for low-life urban detail...

The world of Jonathan Asser exists in the corners and crannies of London's cafés, barbers, gaols, take-aways, tower blocks and fleshpots. Like other poets who have come to the page via the stage, he has retained the bravura of performance within these mostly formal, pacy and filmic narratives. Sometimes voyeuristic, sometimes nihilistic, often very funny, it's hard to pin down the ingredients of influence in his tasty recipe.

Jonathan Asser's forensic account of a world given up to the medium sized dry goods and purchasing opportunities of city life provides a rare consolation: a tender attention to the hopes, desperations and habitual weirdnesses of who we are. The twenty-first century needs a Jonathan Asser and we are fortunate to have him.