David Ward started writing poetry in his late thirties. His poems are the work of an historian who knows how environments and events, on a family or a national scale, shape and change us, and how we live with moral and psychological consequences of a...

For nearly half a century Philip French's writing on cinema has been essential reading for filmgoers, cinephiles and anyone who enjoys witty, intelligent engagement with the big screen. His vast knowledge of the medium is matched by his love for it....

June 1978: Frederic Raphael is in a studio for the dubbing of his television play "Something's Wrong", and a routine moment is captured by his wry alertness to vanities and foibles. "Ifs and Buts" continues the sharply stylish extracts from the journ...

"In Mortal Memory" is a collection of lyric poems, celebratory if often melancholy, both elegiac and ironic. Affirming that life is "all becoming" McNeillie mourns what that means in terms of loss and sorrow at time passing. The sea is a powerful pre...

"In the Wake of the Day" is a book of memories and journeys; from the chaotic energy of urban life in modern Istanbul, where John Ash lives, to the ruins of vanished civilisations; from personal incident to the narratives and vacancies of cultures. A...

Contemporary French poetry has long been tagged as being overly cerebral and hermetic. But there exists a very different, thriving tradition which is too often muffled by noisier movements like Surrealism or Minimalism". Into the Deep Street" gives v...

Robotic insects, in-growing cutlery, flesh-serving waiters in a zombie cafe... Welcome to the surreal, misshapen universe of Adam Marek's first collection; a bestiary of hybrids from the techno-crazed future and mythical past; a users' guide to the...

Who are the invisible kings? Why do two bears follow them round Britain? And what happens when a gypsy's curse comes miraculously to life? David Morley's new book reveals extraordinary worlds where the real and imagined converge in stories and charms...

During a Christmas leave in London, Ford Madox Ford attended a party at the French Embassy, "a heavy blond man in a faded uniform" wearied by years of war, recalled to a longing for the life of a writer. The evening marks the beginning of a new phase...

"Inner Voices" gathers for the first time poems from Richard Howard's twelve published collections, presenting a representative selection of the work of a writer termed by the New York Times Book Review "a powerful presence in American poetry for for...