Hart & Ha'penny

In the early years of the 17th century, for the first time ever a Scottish king acceded the English throne. His name was James.

In the early decades of the 21st century, two friends, Bryony and Ash, are just trying to figure things out together in the West Midlands of England.

Asking questions about legacy and sovereignty along the way, Hart & Ha’penny is part historical fiction, part contemporary tale – a time-hopping poetry novella about love and god(s), magic and survival, and finding somewhere to belong.

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Available on its own as a signed paperback, or save a little on a signed book bundle with Deadly, Delicate (history bundle) - options listed in the drop down menu.

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"Garrett’s masterful verse novella begins in the archives: ‘centuries / swirl silt to the surface, let it clear again.’ By these lines, Garrett encourages the reader to think for themselves. Hart & Ha’penny demands rereading. There are two parallel narratives woven throughout the collection: a contemporary story of two friends in the West Midlands, and James I in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries with his complicated relationships and complicated motivations. Garrett’s writing is astonishing; the way she effortlessly evokes the modern world (‘the moon’s slow hoarfrost reveal’) and the historical world (‘creatures alien as foxes / in the dark’). Hart & Ha’penny is a vital book and I feel privileged to endorse it."

- Edwin Stockdale, author of The Glower of the Sun

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"Hart & Ha’penny is a gandering into the life of King James: his affections and ambitions; his beliefs and infatuations that tempted his interests. The poems within clutch to the truth of the time as related to James and those near him, to the magic he studied and religion he furthered, to subjects commonly shielded by repute. Kate Garrett’s stunning attention to language, in the fictional and historical, delivers a candid and at times commiserative portrayal of a ruler wildly revered and often reviled— allowing readers the chance to witness James Stuart as a man, not just as a king."

- Rachel Nix, poet and editor