Eventualities
Like many good poets, John Birtwhistle publishes sparingly. In his first collection for more than twenty years, he produces a dazzling array of poems on a range of historical, political and personal subjects. These lucid, witty, tender poems, by turns serious and comic, are full of felicitous surprises and unexpected turns of imagination.
About the author
John Birtwhistle was born in 1946. His poetry has been recognized by an Eric Gregory Award, an Arts Council bursary, an Arts Council creative writing fellowship (1976-1977, renewed for 1977-1978), a writing fellowship at the University of Southampton (1978-80) and a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for Our Worst Suspicions (1985). He has had three concert libretti set and performed; of these, David Blake's The Plumber's Gift was staged by English National Opera and broadcast on Radio 3. From 1980, he was a Lecturer in English at the University of York before deciding to concentrate on bringing up his children. Since 1992 he has lived in Sheffield with his wife, son and daughter.