Don't ask me what I mean - Clare Brown

Don't Ask Me What I Mean is a comprehensive guide to the last 50 years of British poetry - written by the poets themselves. In this collection of short essays, the reader will find the last words Louis MacNeice wrote before his death, Ted Hughes on The Hawk in the Rain, Paul Muldoon on the etymology of 'quoof', Carol Ann Duffy on difficulties with gonks, and Simon Armitage on the Dead Sea Scrolls - and rare contributions from Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin, Kingsley Amis, U. A. Fanthorpe, Jo Shapcott, Geoffrey Hill, Michael Donaghy, Elizabeth Jennings and many others. Together they comprise a candid, funny, intellectually brilliant and deeply personal account of one the most turbulent and fascinating periods in recent literary history. Unprecedented in its scope - and its scoops - Don't Ask Me What I Mean is essential reading, both for the poetry aficionado and the uninitiated - and provides a unique insight into some of the most remarkable minds of our time.