A field of large desires - Anthony Astbury

Launched in 1979 by Anthony Astbury, with the support of Harold Pinter, the Greville Press has quietly established itself as indispensable to those who love poetry. Its pamphlets have built a reputation for discoveries of the new and recoveries of the neglected; for championing translations of great world poets and delighting in the classics of English literature - above all, for their manifest enthusiasm for the enriching pleasures of poetry in all its variety. A Field of Large Desires offers a sampler of poems that have been published by the Greville Press: it is both a treasure trove and a celebration of a remarkable venture.



That the Greville Press should simultaneously publish a first collection by Kate Ellis, a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl from Derby, and the first translations of the poems of Arseny Tarkovsky, father of the filmmaker Andrey Tarkovsky, is typical of the small firm's exhilarating eclecticism. - The Independent

Cover image: Figure from the ceiling of Empress Maria Anna's Room (detail), fresco, 18th century, Italian school. Villa Nazionale Pisani, Stra, Veneto, Italy / The Bridgeman Art Library. Cover design: StephenRaw.com