Tell Me Lies: Poems 2005-2008 - Softcover

Mitchell, Adrian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1852248432 ISBN 13: 9781852248437

Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd, 2009

Synopsis

Tell Me Lies is a rampaging last collection by the late and much lamented Shadow Poet Laureate. The title-poem is a 21st-century remix of his celebrated anti-war poem, ""To Whom It May Concern."" Much and nothing has changed since then, and Mitchell's new (now sadly final) poems are just as powerfully relevant 40 years on. Here are visions of war and peace, celebrations and elegies, daft adventures, a gentle explanation of his new job as a Senior Sheep, and exuberant outbursts-like his version of Beowulf told from the point of view of Grendel the Swamp Monster.

About this title

About the Author:

Adrian Mitchell (1932-2008) was a prolific poet, playwright and children's writer. His poetry's simplicity, clarity, passion and humour show his allegiance to a vital, popular tradition embracing William Blake as well as the Border Ballads and the blues. His most nakedly political poems - about nuclear war, Vietnam, prisons and racism - became part of the folklore of the Left, sung and recited at demonstrations and mass rallies. After Allison & Busby stopped publishing poetry, he brought his work to Bloodaxe. Adrian Mitchell's Greatest Hits: His 40 Golden Greats (1991) was followed by four books covering 50 years of his work: Heart on the Left: Poems 1953-1984 (1997), Blue Coffee: Poems 1985-1996 (1996), All Shook Up: Poems 1997-2000 (2000) and The Shadow Knows: Poems 2000-2004 (2004). Tell Me Lies: Poems 2005-2008 follows from Bloodaxe in 2009. His collected poems for children, Umpteen Poems (Orchard Books), and Shapeshifters, his versions of Ovid's Metamorphoses, illustrated by Alan Lee (Frances Lincoln), are both published in 2009. Born in London in 1932, Adrian Mitchell worked as a journalist from 1955 to 1966, when he became a full-time writer. He gave many hundreds of readings throughout the world in theatres, colleges, pubs, prisons, streets, public transport, cellars, clubs and schools of all kinds. Many of his plays and stage adaptations were performed at the National Theatre as well as by the Royal Shakespeare Company and other theatre companies. In 2002, the socialist magazine Red Pepper dubbed him Shadow Poet Laureate and asked him to write regular republican poems for their columns. In a National Poetry Day poll in 2005, his poem 'Human Beings' was voted the poem that most people would like to see launched into space. Adrian died in December 2008.

Review:

'He has the innocence of his own experience - real inner freedom and the courage of his own music. Among all the voices of the Court, a voice as welcome as Lear's fool - Humour that can stick deep and stay funny' - Ted Hughes

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1852248432
• ISBN 13: 9781852248437
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 157
• Illustrator: Steadman Ralph