This volume assembles work long unavailable in print, which forms part of a literary movement - the so-called `Cambridge Poets' -of great interest to many scholars and writers. Nick Totton was involved as a writer, editor, and organiser of readings and events. His poetry has been variously described as `surrealist', `postmodern', `non-representational' and `difficult'; it traverses political, sexual, metaphysical and psychological terrains, collaging multiple styles and vocabularies, and mounting repeated challenges to the ...
Read More
This volume assembles work long unavailable in print, which forms part of a literary movement - the so-called `Cambridge Poets' -of great interest to many scholars and writers. Nick Totton was involved as a writer, editor, and organiser of readings and events. His poetry has been variously described as `surrealist', `postmodern', `non-representational' and `difficult'; it traverses political, sexual, metaphysical and psychological terrains, collaging multiple styles and vocabularies, and mounting repeated challenges to the first person, both singular and plural. Peter Ackroyd has written that Nick's work `redefines the possibilities of political or "public" poetry at a time when it has fallen into disrepute'; Time Out described A Talisman, included here, as `remarkably interesting'. The work's allegiance is certainly not to the current UK poetic orthodoxy, but more to North and South American and European figures like Spicer, Vallejo, Breton, as well as British poets like J.H. Prynne, John James and Denise Riley. Among the writings collected here are the previous, more or less unobtainable collections Making A Meal Of It and Radio Times, plus poems from the wholly unobtainable Scarcity and Mastering the Art of English Cooking; together with long poems including Seeing It Through, You Can't Get There From Here, and Green Heart.
Read Less
