The Song of Lunch

Book excerpt: Lunch in Soho with a former lover – but Zanzotti’s is under new management, and as the wine takes effect fond memories give way to something closer to the bone. A mock-elegy for the heady joys of old-time Soho, The Song of Lunch displays the full range of Christopher Reid’s wit, craft and human sympathy. Published to tie-in with a major BBC 2 dramatization for National Poetry Day, starring Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson.‘A tiny narrative disproportionately rich in exact observation, sorry comedy and controlled pathos. After reading Reid you start to wonder why fiction-writers bother with padding and padding about of prose.’ Alan Hollinghurst, Guardian Books of the Year 2009Christopher Reid is the author of a number of books of poems, including A Scattering (winner of the Costa Book of the Year Award) and The Song of Lunch (both 2009). From 1991 to 1999 he was Poetry Editor at Faber and Faber, and worked with Ted Hughes on such books as Tales from Ovid and Birthday Letters. He is now a freelance writer and lives in London.The BBC production of The Song of Lunch by Christopher Reid:Starring: Alan Rickman and Emma ThompsonProducer: Pier Wilkie Director: Niall MacCormickExecutive Producers: Sarah Brown and Greg WiseCover shot: BBC Picture Publicity/Nick Briggs