The Last Place on Earth is a warm, witty celebration of the textures of a life. The vanishing world of a working-class childhood is evoked alongside football in the park and the purposeful calm of ironing; family parties and born-again bikers, jokes about fruit and the silent beauty of Sheffield on a summer night, its shops lit up like deserted ......
Everything passes. The good and the bad. The joy and the sorrow.
Everything passes.
Or does it?
A man stands at a window, looking out. Behind him, a room, bare of people and of furniture. Fragments of conversations drop into his head, conversations with his first and second wife, with his children, with his friends. A life can slowly be pieced ......
Presents two historical novels by the poet, classical scholar, novelist and critic. "King Jesus" takes us into the ancient past, exploring the world of King Jesus with powerful immediacy. "My Head! My Head!" is a retelling of the story of Elisha.
The Instruments of Art uses poetry to explore the lives and works of Edvard Munch, Vincent Van Gogh and others, the personal sacrifice involved, the singular vision and inspiration that set them in motion. God's creation, some argue, is a work of art, and Christ's life and death an expression of it. Deane follows this thread in a series of sonnets ......
Charles Olson's influence on the development of British and American poetry through his writing and teaching is immense. His work encompasses myth, history, scholarship and politics. This book includes extracts from a range of Olson's poetry and prose, including letters, interviews and the full text of the key essay 'Projective Verse'.
From a quick-tempered singing grandmother to a performance of The Mikado in an African village: David Kinloch's exploration of his relationship with his father is both unexpected and affectionate. An extended sequence of poems moves from personal memory to reflections on the values embodied in such cultural father-figures as the explorer David ......
The compelling works of John William Polidori (1795-1821) such as "The Vampyre" and "Ernestus Berchtold", exerted a powerful hold over literature and popular culture. This is a collection of Polidori's works, along with his lesser-known works such as his medical thesis on nightmares, his pamphlet on the death penalty, his poetry and diary.
Edward Lear (1812-1888) is one of the best-loved of English poets. His comic invention and unconstrained sense of the absurd have been enjoyed by generations of children, and treasured by adults conscious of the subtle melancholy that underlies the fun.
This collection includes all the favourite nonsense poems. Peter Swaab sets them alongside a ......
