Ping! - by Iain Whiteley (Paperback)

About the Book

Ping! is the sound of a millennium gatecrashing its 21st birthday party - then passing out in the kitchen.

Book Synopsis

Ping! is a glittering xennial trip through Glasgow tenements, Lancashire bus stations and London theatres, leaping into the sea and beyond. In these poems, party queens, builders and greasy advertising execs ride shotgun with 1970s videogames, digital nomads and linguistic algorithms to tackle themes such as capitalism, kinship, politics and otherness. From kitchen sink drama to international terror, and from the death of the high street to the rise of AI, these are poignant-yet-playful poems for a post-pandemic world. Witty, tart and peculiarly philosophical, Ping! is the sound of a millennium gatecrashing its 21st birthday party - then passing out in the kitchen.

Review Quotes

"In the 49-shot rally between an opening video-game 'Pong' and the final 'Ping!', Iain Whiteley's shimmering invention takes us on an electrified monorail ride through incisively observed and wittily imagined worlds, from teen mixtapes to cascading style sheets, from Anaglypta and berrying to 'Eighties clubbing and milk-substitute options. These poems are stunningly dextrous in form/language interplay in, for example, a heptasyllabic quatrain built from file-extension acronyms, terza-rima lending a rolling conviction to a roofer's subtle nudgings, and a ghazal whose radif is pure Cumbria. 'Ping!' is a uniquely rewarding poetic stroll - absurdist and ludic, but always authentic, insightful, convincing."

Cahal Dallat

"I choose Iain Whiteley for my team. His collection Ping! made me laugh, made me see just how kitsch the cool can be and made me nostalgic for those evenings when you went out with a pack of friend in a first car with somebody opting to go in the boot. Modern life is here with poems about computers, supermarkets, an elegy for the Oxford Street Topshop, solo dining, a TV weatherman's hair, but there are also some wonderful nature poems that bring a freshness to traditional forms, including haiku from the milk aisle and a pantoum I wish I'd written. And I learnt a few things; I will not be messing with any scaffolder and I will always answer yes to the question, 'Do you like Belinda Carlisle?'"

Lorraine Mariner

"In 'Ping!' Whiteley skillfully unearths the poetry in a joystick, an mp3 file, a mixtape, oat milk, a Eurovision party - his ability to pull anything into a poem, interrogate it and find some playful, yet thoughtful, joy is absolutely thrilling! Whiteley's poetry bristles with life - who else could write a poem in the voice of a reissued Madonna single? And just like the single, Whiteley's poetry is 'layered, angular, deep'."

Richard Scott