GILLIAN BICKLEY was born and educated in the UK and has lived mainly in Hong Kong since 1970. The poems in Sightings are on Hong Kong, European and personal subjects, accessible to many readers, both young and old. They consider what it is like to be a human being in this modern world, drawing inspiration mainly from the people whom the writer has encountered, especially in Hong Kong.
An academic turned full-time writer, editor and publisher, Gillian invites readers and listeners to share her enjoyment of city and country, simple and complex ideas and events, and her empathy with the largely innocent people she has come across. In her trademark transparent style, she draws on events, happenings, creatures, artefacts and objects she has seen, and on places and people she has experienced in Asia, Europe, North America and Africa, as well as on stimulating and memorable books she has read.
"She has made use of everyday life situations and turned them into life lessons. Sightings inspires us to slow down and taste the sense of the city."— Ma Kwai Hung, Hong Kong.
"The poems in Sightings are witty, poignant, full of memorable images and insights and a total delight." — Professor Ken Pickering
"Sightings conveys playfulness and ironic humour. The writer displays, 'a strong ethical sense and a constant and engaging lyricism'." —Marion Bethel, Bahamian poet
Bickley has, "a talent for turning the stuff of ordinary life into poetry. She continually surprises and delights by making fresh connections between seemingly disparate situations". — Mrs Margaret Clarke, Oxfordshire.
"Gillian Bickley walks around the world with her eyes open, relishing the phenomena she passes".— Harry Guest, Honorary University Fellow, University of Exeter, UK (from his 'Preface' to Sightings).
