Description
From the Winner of the International Rubery Poetry Award comes this timely and delightful, environmentally-friendly, ballad from a non-human viewpoint!
A Ballad for Kitty Cockroach – Words and Pictures by Keith Chandler
This ballad is based on the idea that, in the event of ecological catastrophe, insects such as cockroaches might be most likely to survive and adapt.
“Even the Human Race
So much more loathsome than ourselves
I daresay has its place.”
About Keith Chandler:
Born in Nigeria, educated at Christs Hospital and New College, Oxford, Keith Chandler worked as a schoolteacher in Liverpool, London and Norfolk. His latest collection, The Goldsmiths Apprentice, was awarded The International Rubery Poetry Award for best independently published poetry collection in 2018, the title poem also winning a runner-up prize in the National Poetry competition.
Previous publications:
Ten English Poets (Carcanet 1977)
Kett’s Rebellion (Carcanet 1982)
A Passing Trade (O.H.P. 1992)
A Different Kind of Smoke (Redbeck 2000)
The English Civil War Part 2 (Peterloo Poets 2008)
The Goldsnith’s Apprentice (Fair Acre Press 2019)
Some Responses to The Goldsmith’s Apprentice – also published by Fair Acre Press:
This is a fresh, nuanced and humane collection of poems with its eye and ear to the world of work in particular, and to the craft of survival in general. It is a wonderful and generous book. The poems welcome you in and hold your attention with their deftness, attentiveness and joy in making.
David Morley, Winner of The Ted Hughes Award
Crammed with good ideas and strong endings, these are accessible poems which are deeply engaged with both the ephemera and the big issues of ordinary lives. More than anything, I value them for their great humanity To appropriate the ending of a wonderfully moving poem about a nurse, these poems, coming as they do out of the best motivations and the deepest artistic rigour, are The Real Thing.’
Jonathan Edwards, Winner of The Costa Award for Poetry
Some Responses to The English Civil War Part 2:
And now, with a fanfare, comes the Court Jester, Keith Chandler, though as good jesters do he speaks unwelcome truths. Read this hilarious and mordant book.
Peter Scupham, Poetry Review
A spellbinding book – tremendously impressive, entertaining, moving, funny. And original. These poems are always ‘about’ something.
Anthony Thwaite
His angle on the world is often fresh and funny, equipped with formidable confidence in the face of uncomfortable truths.
Rennie Parker, Critical Survey
It is a humane, funny, sometimes biting, very English collection, with a strong apocalyptic theme running through … A genuine poet, remarkable for his acuteness of observation and unshowy craftsmanship.
George Szirtes, Poetry Review
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