Mick Imlah

As well as a highly-respected poet and editor, Mick Imlah (1956 - 2009) was one of the finest literary critics of his generation. With a preface by Mark Ford, this volume draws together a selection of Imlah's essays that reveal the formidable breadth of his unique literary insight, and the flair with which he communicated it.

As well as a highly respected poet and editor, Mick Imlah (19562009) was one of the finest literary critics of his generation. He spent most of his twenty-five-year career working for the Times Literary Supplement, reinterpreting familiar writers from Tennyson and Trollope to Larkin and Muldoon, and as his interest in his Scottish background grew elucidating those fallen from favour, such as Barrie, Buchan, Muir and Scott. With a preface by Mark Ford, this volume draws together a selection of Imlah's essays that reveal the formidable breadth of his unique literary insight, and the flair with which he communicated it. The volume also encompasses some of his pieces on miscellaneous subjects such as sport and travel, as well as on his own poetry, in order to provide a rounded sense of Imlah the man and writer. Mick Imlah was born in 1956 and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he taught as a Junior Fellow. He was editor of Poetry Review from 1983 to 1986, Chatto and Windus poetry editor from 1989 to 1993, and worked at the Times Literary Supplement for many years until his death in 2009. His second collection of poetry, The Lost Leader, won the Forward Prize in 2008.

Autorentext

André Naffis-Sahely is a poet and translator. His recent publications include The Palm Beach Effect: Reflections on Michael Hofmann (2013) and The Physiology of the Employee by Honoré de Balzac (2014).
Robert Selby is a poet, journalist and critic. He completed a PhD on the life and work of Mick Imlah at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Klappentext

As well as a highly respected poet and editor, Mick Imlah (1956-2009) was one of the finest literary critics of his generation. He spent most of his twenty-five-year career working for the Times Literary Supplement, reinterpreting familiar writers from Tennyson and Trollope to Larkin and Muldoon, and - as his interest in his Scottish background grew - elucidating those fallen from favour, such as Barrie, Buchan, Muir and Scott. With a preface by Mark Ford, this volume draws together a selection of Imlah's essays that reveal the formidable breadth of his unique literary insight, and the flair with which he communicated it. The volume also encompasses some of his pieces on miscellaneous subjects such as sport and travel, as well as on his own poetry, in order to provide a rounded sense of Imlah the man and writer.
Mick Imlah was born in 1956 and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he taught as a Junior Fellow. He was editor of Poetry Review from 1983 to 1986, Chatto and Windus poetry editor from 1989 to 1993, and worked at the Times Literary Supplement for many years until his death in 2009. His second collection of poetry, The Lost Leader, won the Forward Prize in 2008.

Zusammenfassung
«Mick Imlah is one of the most original and memorable English-language poets of the late twentieth century - a brilliant talent, brutally curtailed. This volume is a necessary companion to his poems, and full of insights that are fascinating in their own right.» (Sir Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate 1999-2009)
«Mick Imlah was not only a meticulous and resourceful reviewer, but he possessed the deep creative perspective of the true poet-critic. His admirers will want this volume.» (John Fuller, poet and Fellow Emeritus at Magdalen College, Oxford)

Inhalt

Contents: On Writers: Blind Harry and Robert Baston - Walter Scott - Alfred, Lord Tennyson - Anthony Trollope - Matthew Arnold - James Thomson ('B. V.') - A. C. Swinburne - Robert Bridges - S. R. Crockett - J. M. Barrie - W. B. Yeats - Laurence Binyon - G. K. Chesterton - John Buchan - Edwin Muir - «In the Dorian Mood» - Robert Graves - Graham Greene - Henry Green - Gavin Ewart - Philip Larkin - Christopher Logue - Harold Pinter - Alasdair Gray - Tony Harrison - Ian Hamilton - Seamus Heaney - Douglas Dunn - Julian Barnes - James Kelman - Peter Reading - Christopher Reid - Martin Amis - Paul Muldoon - John Burnside - Michael Hofmann - Irvine Welsh - Douglas Galbraith - «Auld Acquaintances» - «I Belong To Glasgow» - Digressions: Bottle Fatigue - In Praise of Ugly Bugs - Don't Fly Me - On Cricket - On Rugby - The Road from Marrakesh - The Legend of Iron Joss - Away From It All - Interview: With Oxford Poetry.