Carcanet Press - P.J. Kavanagh

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P.J. KAVANAGH was born in England in 1931, and has worked as a lecturer, actor and broadcaster, as well as a writer. His Collected Poems were published in 1992, the year in which he was given the Cholmondeley Award for poetry. His memoir The Perfect Stranger won the Richard Hillary Prize in 1966, and his first novel A Song and Dance was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1968. From 1983 to 1996 P.J. Kavanagh was a columnist on the Spectator, and from 1996 to 2002 on The Times Literary Supplement. In addition to his four novels for adults and two children's novels, he has written a travel autobiography (Finding Connections), a literary companion (Voices in Ireland) and has edited The Oxford Book of Short Poems and The Essential G.K. Chesterton, and, for Carcanet, a new edition of his Collected Poems of Ivor Gurney.

'[P.J. Kavanagh possesses] that quality of sheer readability... '
Vernon Scannell

Praise for P.J. Kavanagh 'There is plenty of quietly glittering intellect in these poems... he has an eye for rural things, birds, plants, weather; all are subdued to the colour of his own mind, its knowledge of loss, its recurrent perception of the world as a place to which it belongs and does not belong... this collection amply demonstrates Kavanagh's distinguished place among contemporary poets.' Frank Kermode on Collected Poems '[P.J. Kavanagh possesses] that quality of sheer readability... ' Vernon Scannell Though in many ways an obvious successor to Edward Thomas... PJKavanagh has also much in common with Louis MacNeice, an essentially private and autobiographical poet... Kavanagh displays the same talent for a conversational tone, and shares MacNeice's fondness for rhyme, his love of echoes... he employs traditional forms while allowing himself a relaxed freedom regarding line-length and metre (not to be mistaken for a lack of craft). The parallels should not be overstressed, however; Kavanagh is decidedly his own man with his own interestsand concerns. For one thing, religion takes the place of politics for him, though his attitude to belief reveals something of that critical fastidiousness MacNeice maintained towards the political orthodoxies of his day... Simon Rae [on Presences]

Simon Darragh, The London Magazine , April/May 2005
...There read more

Jim Burns, Ambit , May 2005
There are some lines in the first poem in this book that struck home and made me conscious of my own situation (getting older) and the way in which I often think I see someone from the past who, in fact, turns out to be another person:
Was it the blouse-and-skirt combination, the cut Of the fair hair of the near-silhouette Against the shining sea, that made me peer and stare? read more

Sally Festing, Magma 31, Spring 2005
P.J. read more

Reviewed in the Spectator by Lloyd Evans
[...] read more

Ivor Bertie Gurney was born in 1890 in Gloucester where he became a choirboy and an organ scholar, imbibing that rich tradition of anglican choral music and psalmody which had such an effect on his own work. read more

Fred Beake, Acumen , January 2005:
Review of Ivor Gurney, , Collected Poems , and Lorine Niedecker, Collected Works (University of California Press)
Gurney's self is almost the subject of his poems. read more

Reviewed by Neil Curry in The North , Issue 35
Gloucester-born Ivor Gurney published his first slim volume, Severn and Somme , in 1917 when he was twenty-seven. read more

Same Difference by Peter Carter
The London Magazine December / January 2005
Charles Tomlinson is nearing the end of his last 1982 Clark Lecture, 'Metamorphosis and Translation'. read more

Anthony Thwaite in the Sunday Telegraph , 21st November, 2004
There are times, or moods, when you want a poet to talk to you, in the sense of listening to memorable speech, not too high-flown; you hear it in George Herbert, in Robert Frost, in Edward Thomas, in Philip Larkin. read more

P J Kavanagh is a poet, author, columnist and actor. read more

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P.J. Kavanagh Books by this author: Something About Collected Poems (Ed.) A Kind of Journal Selected Poems (Ed.) Collected Poems The Perfect Stranger An Enchantment People and Places About Reviews P.J. KAVANAGH was born in England in 1931, and has worked as a lecturer, actor and broadcaster, as well as a writer. His Collected Poems were published in 1992, the year in which he was given the Cholmondeley Award for poetry. His memoir The Perfect Stranger won the Richard Hillary Prize in 1966, and his first novel A Song and Dance was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1968. From 1983 to 1996 P.J. Kavanagh was a columnist on the Spectator, and from 1996 to 2002 on The Times Literary Supplement. In addition to his four novels for adults and two children's novels, he has written a travel autobiography (Finding Connections), a literary companion (Voices in Ireland) and has edited The Oxford Book of Short Poems and The Essential G.K. Chesterton, and, for Carcanet, a new edition of his Collected Poems of Ivor Gurney. '[P.J. Kavanagh possesses] that quality of sheer readability... ' Vernon Scannell Praise for P.J. Kavanagh 'There is plenty of quietly glittering intellect in these poems... he has an eye for rural things, birds, plants, weather; all are subdued to the colour of his own mind, its knowledge of loss, its recurrent perception of the world as a place to which it belongs and does not belong... this collection amply demonstrates Kavanagh's distinguished place among contemporary poets.' Frank Kermode on Collected Poems '[P.J. Kavanagh possesses] that quality of sheer readability... ' Vernon Scannell Though in many ways an obvious successor to Edward Thomas... PJKavanagh has also much in common with Louis MacNeice, an essentially private and autobiographical poet... Kavanagh displays the same talent for a conversational tone, and shares MacNeice's fondness for rhyme, his love of echoes... he employs traditional forms while allowing himself a relaxed freedom regarding line-length and metre (not to be mistaken for a lack of craft). The parallels should not be overstressed, however; Kavanagh is decidedly his own man with his own interestsand concerns. For one thing, religion takes the place of politics for him, though his attitude to belief reveals something of that critical fastidiousness MacNeice maintained towards the political orthodoxies of his day... Simon Rae [on Presences] Simon Darragh, The London Magazine , April/May 2005 ...There read more Jim Burns, Ambit , May 2005 There are some lines in the first poem in this book that struck home and made me conscious of my own situation (getting older) and the way in which I often think I see someone from the past who, in fact, turns out to be another person: Was it the blouse-and-skirt combination, the cut Of the fair hair of the near-silhouette Against the shining sea, that made me peer and stare? read more Sally Festing, Magma 31, Spring 2005 P.J. read more Reviewed in the Spectator by Lloyd Evans [...] read more Ivor Bertie Gurney was born in 1890 in Gloucester where he became a choirboy and an organ scholar, imbibing that rich tradition of anglican choral music and psalmody which had such an effect on his own work. read more Fred Beake, Acumen , January 2005: Review of Ivor Gurney, , Collected Poems , and Lorine Niedecker, Collected Works (University of California Press) Gurney's self is almost the subject of his poems. read more Reviewed by Neil Curry in The North , Issue 35 Gloucester-born Ivor Gurney published his first slim volume, Severn and Somme , in 1917 when he was twenty-seven. read more Ivor Bertie Gurney was born in 1890 in Gloucester where he became a choirboy and an organ scholar, imbibing that rich tradition of anglican choral music and psalmody which had such an effect on his own work. read more Fred Beake, Acumen , January 2005: Review of Ivor Gurney, , Collected Poems , and Lorine Niedecker, Collected Works (University of California Press) Gurney's self is almost the subject of his poems. read more Reviewed by Neil Curry in The North , Issue 35 Gloucester-born Ivor Gurney published his first slim volume, Severn and Somme , in 1917 when he was twenty-seven. read more Ivor Bertie Gurney was born in 1890 in Gloucester where he became a choirboy and an organ scholar, imbibing that rich tradition of anglican choral music and psalmody which had such an effect on his own work. read more Fred Beake, Acumen , January 2005: Review of Ivor Gurney, , Collected Poems , and Lorine Niedecker, Collected Works (University of California Press) Gurney's self is almost the subject of his poems. read more Reviewed by Neil Curry in The North , Issue 35 Gloucester-born Ivor Gurney published his first slim volume, Severn and Somme , in 1917 when he was twenty-seven. read more Same Difference by Peter Carter The London Magazine December / January 2005 Charles Tomlinson is nearing the end of his last 1982 Clark Lecture, 'Metamorphosis and Translation'. read more Anthony Thwaite in the Sunday Telegraph , 21st November, 2004 There are times, or moods, when you want a poet to talk to you, in the sense of listening to memorable speech, not too high-flown; you hear it in George Herbert, in Robert Frost, in Edward Thomas, in Philip Larkin. read more P J Kavanagh is a poet, author, columnist and actor. read more	Share this... 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