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A new selection of poems by Eleanor Farjeon
Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965) had her first book of poetry published in 1908. She went on to write over 80 books of poetry, drama, novels, essays and short stories, winning three major awards. In a long literary life she numbered among her friends, D.H. Lawrence, Robert Frost, Walter de la Mare and most notably, Edward Thomas. She was one his closest collaborators at the time he wrote his great poems and his death in the First World War spurred her to some of her finest poetry in the poignant sonnets touching on her grief. Eleanor Farjeon's later work developed a profound spiritual dimension and she remains well known as the writer of the hymn, 'Morning has Broken'
'Like Sorrow or a Tune' introduces a new selection of her work, reflecting its diversity, orginality, wit and depth of feeling.
The collection is edited and introduced by Anne Harvey, with a preface by Piers Plowright.
SelectionISBN 978-1-873390-14-6 Pbk 160pp £9.99
The Poetry of Nick Montgomery
Nick Montgomery who died in 2011, aged 52, was a man with many talents, as a musician with the rock band Microdisney, as a song writer, essayist and short story writer, academic and teacher, he also drew and painted, and who left us his remarkable collection of poems.
'Something Mortal' consists of several fine sequences of sonnets, including the striking 'Eros Rose', a reflection on the passion of love and its loss. But the book centres on the haunting theme of the death of Stephen, his older brother. Both men took life to extremes, paying the price in exchange for a better understanding of themselves and as a statement of their individuality.
At university, Nick Montgomery was a student of the leading contemporary poet, John Fuller, who has contributed a moving introduction to this edition.
SelectionISBN 978-1-873390-13-9 Pbk 64pp £8.99
A New Selection of Poems by Edmund Blunden
Edited by Rennie Parker and Margi Blunden
Edmund Blunden's writing career began in 1914 and ended during the 1960's, giving us half a century of poetry which sidestepped the dominant literary fashions after 1930. In this new selection - including works which have been out of print for many years - the editors have sought to represent each aspect of his poetry so that the familiar is seen in context with the lesser known. Above all, Blunden retained a haunted quality to his writing, one which resonates with contemporary ideas about loss and personal dislocation.
Rennie Parker obtained her PhD in 1997 after researching the poet and composer Ivor Gurney. 'The Georgian Poets' appeared in 1999, and she has published two poetry collections. She works for Arts NK in Lincolnshire.
Margi Blunden has a degree in English and is a trained teacher. She is the eldest of Edmund Blunden's four daughters by his third marriage.
ISBN 978-1-873390-08-5 Pbk 128pp £8.99
ISBN 978-1-873390-11-5 Pbk 21pp £2.00
'The Blackbird Inspector' by Pamela Coren
The distinctive poetry of Pamela Coren springs from a lifetime's engagement with music, Quakerism and the landscapes of moor and fen. Her poems take a second, harder look at the pattern of things - in particular the overlaps of past and present, the natural and mysterious, love and reality. Pamela Coren's writing has a resonant concern for justice and an independent, female voice - one of the most distinguished to be heard today.
Pamela Coren was born in Rochdale in 1949 and holds degrees from East Anglia, London and Leicester Universities. She has published academic work on Spenser, Campion, Donne and Jonson and is currently researching the modernist poets rediscovery of early music. She was recognised in the 2001 National Poetry Competition. She lives in Stamford, in Lincolnshire.
ISBN 978-1-873390-07-8 Pbk 64pp £7.99
'Strange Meetings: Poems by Harold Monro'
Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Dominic Hibberd
Harold Monro was one of the leaders in the revolution in poetry just before the First World War, contributing through his writing, the Poetry Bookshop he established and the three periodicals he created. His reputation as a generous supporter of new talent is unquestioned. His friend, T.S. Eliot wrote, ". . . he has not simply done something better than anyone else, but has done something that no one else has done at all." Driven first by visionary hope for the future, Monro wrote on themes as diverse as war, sexuality, threats to the environment, domesticity and the death of a lover in battle. The end of his life was clouded by loss, illness and disappointment, and his poetry which Edward Thomas called "intensely interesting", naturally grew bleaker and more pessimistic. Yet as T.S. Eliot said, ". . . it is a world which we ought to visit."
Dominic Hibberd has taught at universities in Britain, the United States and China. Now a freelance author, he lives in the Cotswolds. His publications include two biographies, Harold Monro: Poet of the New Age (2000)―described by the Sunday Times as 'gripping'―and the much acclaimed Wilfred Owen: A New Biography (2002), as well as Wilfred Owen: The Last Year 1917-1918 (1992), Owen the Poet (1986) and various editions, anthologies and academic articles, mostly about the literature of the First World War.
ISBN 978-1-873390-05-4 Pbk 128pp £7.99
'In Pursuit of Spring' by
Edward Thomas
A year before the start of World War I, finding life as a critic and journalist stressful and unsatisfying, Edward Thomas wrote this account of a ride on a bicycle from London to the Quantocks. The book, a classic of English literature, combines Thomas's unsentimental self analysis with an emphasis on the importance of place and nature to other writers, especially poets. It also records the tacit reactions of a transcendental thinker to the rising threat of war. Having achieved perhaps his finest work in prose in 'In Pursuit of Spring', Thomas was next to turn to writing the poetry which has secured his reputation.
ISBN 978-1-873390-04-7 Pbk 240pp £9.99
REPRINTING - AVAILABLE MAY 2013
Visit the In Pursuit of Spring website: www.inpursuitofspring.co.uk
'Light and Twilight' by Edward Thomas
The fourteen short stories in 'Light and Twilight' are Edward Thomas's prose masterpiece on the themes of death and desire. Their objective is to pinpoint moments when the defining elements of life reveal themselves, like stars at sunset. Readers familiar with his poetry will discover the stories in 'Light and Twilight' to be as hauntingly beautiful. This is the first edition since 1911.
ISBN 978-1-873390-03-0 Pbk 92pp £6.99
REPRINTING - AVAILABLE MAY 2013
'What Follows?' by Patrick Ingram
It is one of life's absurdities that we do not anticipate the inevitable. A journey out of life is always an unimaginable and terrifying experience.
With this thought Patrick Ingram visited the ancient, fruitful Mediterranean island of Sicily to explore its renowned entrances to the dark kingdom. They say if you want to visit and safely leave the underworld, you must wear just the right disguise. These sensitive poems, which come home to consider the affairs of the living, sparkle with enthusiasm, touched by deep feeling and a little of the madness of grief. Questioning what poetry can offer us today, they end with a glimpse of paradise.
ISBN 978-1-873390-09-2 Hbk 128pp £9.99