Bernard O’Donoghue
Forms of Exile
The Poetry of Derek Mahon
By Hugh Haughton
Oxford University Press 390pp £30 order from our bookshop
The number of critical books that can confidently take their place next to their subjects is small; this is certainly one of them. It is all the more remarkable given that the subject, Derek Mahon, is recognised universally as one of the great poets of his era, whose work, though admired and praised by all readers of poetry, has not received a due measure of sustained criticism. Haughton’s study is the first full-length analysis of Mahon, so it is a relief, as well as a pleasure, to find it so excellently done.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'Unlike much that was extracted from India, these paintings were not plunder, and those who created them were properly remunerated and often received due credit.'
@PParkerWriting on 'Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/artists-for-hire
‘"I feel", Lowell told Hardwick ... "as if I were pulled apart and thinning into mist, or rather being torn apart and still preferring that state to making a decision."'
Richard Davenport-Hines on the letters of Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/yours-unfaithfully-2
'To me, Elmore Leonard is as comforting in extremity as Pym, and as safe, in the last resort, as Wodehouse. The guys with the best lines are going to come out the other side; the dumb fucks are going to get it in the head or chest.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-spoonful-of-elmore