Armada - Tapa dura

Through the fads and fashions of the last thirty years Brian Patten has remained true to his own personal vision of poetry. Whether composing lamentations to the terrible beauty of human love, or writing his outstanding popular verse for children, he has continued to articulate and illuminate the joys and sorrows of the everyday world.

His reputation has been enhanced progressively by each of his collections, and now with translations into numerous languages including Italian, Spanish, German and Polish he is acknowledged as one of Europe's foremost contemporary poets. Through his performance work he is certainly one of Britain's most popular poets.

This new book of poems is Patten's eighth for adults. With its powerful opening section interweaving poems about the death of his mother and memories of his childhood with her, it is at one and the same time his most personal and universal collection. It is a book of remarkable poems offering sharp insights into life and the human condition.

Brian Patten was born in Liverpool in 1946 and is now recognised as one of Europe's leading contemporary poets. His work is translated into many languages worldwide, and his collections (available in Flamingo) include 'Grinning Jack, Love Poems', and 'Storm Damage'.

He is also well known for his children's poetry and novels, and is the editor of the 'Twentieth Century Book of Children's Verse'.

Writing about Brian Patten's work Charles Causley has said:
"He gazes with unwavering curiosity at the minutiae of existence, and at its complexities and clichés. He reveals a sensibility profoundly aware of the ever-present possibility of the magical and miraculous, as well as of the granite-hard realities. These are all undiluted poems, beautifully calculated, informed – even in their darkest moments – with courage and hope.

"Patten, uncompromisingly, goes all out for the poem, not the audience: and the rest follows. Once received and absorbed, Brian Patten's best work is something incapable of ever being entirely lost or discarded."