Jeremy Noel–Tod
To Swell a Progress
On Poetry
By Glyn Maxwell
Oberon Books 170pp £12.99
Beyond the Lyric: A Map of Contemporary British Poetry
By Fiona Sampson
Poetry is a violently opinionated business. The closest I have come to a civil war was – quite seriously – a conference on versification. Poetry lovers, however, tend to be polite people who express their feelings in convoluted ways. Hence, perhaps, their love of poetry, but also the incoherent quality of much poetry criticism.
Glyn Maxwell, a British poet, begins On Poetry by going back to Shakespeare. In doing so, he concedes what might be called the anthological paradox. The great poets of the past are, largely, agreed. Yet the canon does not lead to present-day consensus, a problem Maxwell finds exacerbated by literary
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It wasn’t until 1825 that Pepys’s diary became available for the first time. How it was eventually decrypted and published is a story of subterfuge and duplicity.
Kate Loveman tells the tale.
Kate Loveman - Publishing Pepys
Kate Loveman: Publishing Pepys
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Piers Brendon compares Benson’s journals to others from the 20th century.
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Piers Brendon: Land of Dopes & Tories - The Benson Diaries: Selections from the Diary of Arthur Christopher Benson by Eamon Duffy & Ronald Hyam (edd)
literaryreview.co.uk
Of the siblings Gwen and Augustus John, it is Augustus who has commanded most attention from collectors and connoisseurs.
Was he really the finer artist, asks Tanya Harrod, or is it time Gwen emerged from her brother’s shadow?
Tanya Harrod - Cut from the Same Canvas
Tanya Harrod: Cut from the Same Canvas - Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The Lives and Loves of Gwen and Augustus John by Judith Mackrell
literaryreview.co.uk