All Reviews - The Mad Poet’s Tea Party
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Sandy is one of my all-time favourite poets and I admire her talent and courage immensely. For as Sandy puts it in “Dangling” ‘we dangle from a thread of sanity while madness snaps at our heels’ but it hasn’t stopped her from offering the very best of herself and we are the richer for her persistence over the years.
Jean Taylor,
Sinister Wisdom
It’s clear poetry is Jeffs’s world; it permeates ordinary human existence, doing its best to withstand insanity and capitalism.
Michael Farrell,
The Australian
Over six collections and a memoir, Melbourne poet Sandy Jeffs, has developed a considerable track record as an "insider" spokesperson for the mentally ill. She has battled schizophrenia and other disorders since 1976, From 1994, with her first book, Poems from the Madhouse, Jeffs has used poetry to provide a graphic insight into her situation and that of thousands of others enduring comparable problems.
Geoff Page,
SMH
Parts will make you cry... It's a clever read. However it is our privileged entry into the halls of madness-our chaperone a dexterous poet, clearly in command of her language-that makes it an unforgettable one.
Cherie Moselen,
Warrandyte Diary
The Mad Poet's Tea Party puts it all on the table...it is the assertion of a poet who knows that 'every mad cloud has a sane lining', and that she can still be a renowned writer with a mental illness
Alicia Bee,
The Australian Writer
If you believe that 'blessed are the cracked for they let in the light', then double-blessed is Sandy because she lets in the funny too.
Andrew Denton
I never imagined describing madness could be so rich, so vivid and so full of humour – Sandy’s words make me want to dance.
Meryl Tankard, choreographer and director for stage and film
Sandy Jeffs lives her art and opens up her unique soul to us. Her writing makes us laugh, enlightens and moves us with her bewitching words. This book is a treasure and testament to her wonderful gift.
Elena Kats-Chernin, award-winning composer
