An Elegy for the Galosherman by Matt Simpson

An Elegy for the Galosherman by Matt Simpson

In many of his poems Matt Simpson looks back at his upbringing in Bootle, at family tensions in a close-knit Merseyside community with strong seafaring traditions. What emerges from these and other poems is a deep commitment to human values. With humour and honesty Matt Simpson faces the effects of death and loss - how they strengthen or weaken us, or leave us compromised. Matt Simpson's poetry is moving and distinctive. This book draws on previous collections including 'Letters to Berlin', 'A Skye Sequence' and 'Making Arrangements'.

One of Liverpool's unsung poets, Matt Simpson evokes the streets of Bootle with a humour and craftsmanship reminiscent of Norman Nicholson's evocations of Millom-- Roger Garfitt
What strikes me most, after the vividness and the humour and the authenticity, is the feeling that here is someone who really knows what people are like in the world outside Hampstead and the libraries. -- Norman Nicholson
What Simpson gives us is something entirely his own, a unified dockland reverie that interweaves family history, an elliptical narrative of childhood and adolescence in a sharply realised place and time, war, street wisdoms and the trades of the sea. It's done by anecdote, by portrait, by quizzical meditation... and more than anything else, by elegy. -- Kit Wright * Ambit *
A special individual voice speaking from an interesting place... a good hardness coming out of family values and physical working objects... a real special poet. -- W.S. Graham

Matt Simpson (1936-2009) was born in Bootle, Merseyside, to a working-class family with a long seafaring tradition, and educated at Bootle Grammar School. In 1955 he won a place at Cambridge, where he read English. For some years after graduating he taught English to overseas students in Cambridge, where he met his German wife, Monika Weydert, and where his two children were born. In 1964 he returned to Liverpool. During 1994, he was poet-in-residence for six months in Tasmania. He was a founder member and chair of the Windows Project for many years. He was also a noted children's poet, publishing two collections and appearing in hundreds of anthologies. His poetry collections included Making Arrangements (1982), An Elegy for the Galosherman: New & Selected Poems (1990) and Catching up with History (1995) from Bloodaxe.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781852241032
ISBN 10	1852241039
Title	An Elegy for the Galosherman
Author	Matt Simpson
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Year published	1990-10-25
Number of pages	128
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable