Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was, as T. S. Eliot recognised, a supreme ballad-maker, a storyteller who relished the adventures and characters encountered in the wide world, and a man whose sympathies lay with those whose work and dedication sustained...

In "Letters of Introduction" Kevin Jackson invents a new genre, the Alphabet Essay, providing a playful A to Z of cultural heroes and legends, from William Blake to Marguerite Yourcenar, from Albion to Zen. Here, Kevin Jackson promises, we will enco...

In this generous selection of nearly half of Hauge's poetic work, Robin Fulton displays the range, variety and distinctive qualities of his poetry. Though deeply rooted in the West Norwegian landscape which he evokes so memorably, Hauge's poetry has...

"Letters to Ted" is a remarkable collection of poems in memory of the late Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes, with whom Daniel Weissbort struck up a friendship, both literary and personal, during their student days in 1950s Cambridge. Swift-moving, by turns...

The poems in Philip Holmes's fourth collection are as widespread in time, covering a 16-year period, as their settings are scattered geographically. These range from Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, where he grew up, to Bucharest, Kyoto and the USA, where...

Caroline Bird first appears to be a traditional storyteller. But the stories she tells (or conceals) are suspended in a language charged with metaphor, and most of them are built upon foundations which are strangely familiar: fairy tale, fantasy and...

Jeremy Over's poetry creates a world of delight and amazement; in the face of language, love and an elusive reality which seems eternally beyond the realm of rational control. His cornucopia spills out pineapples, watermelons, unstitched shoes and fl...

Derek Walcott celebrates Les Murray in these terms: "There is no poetry in the English language so rooted in its sacred-ness, so broad-leafed in its pleasures, and yet so intimate and conversational". Fifteen years ago Carcanet published Les Murray...

Keith Douglas (1920-1944) loved his country. He also had an insatiable hunger for experience. When World War II began he enlisted: to fight, and to read history from within its turbulence. As with the poets of the First World War, his art was tried,...

There have been many dictionaries explaining to laymen the technical terms of sailing. None of them, until now, has systematically set out to explore their etymology and evolution. "The Language of Sailing" demonstrates how many of the English and Am...