Striking a Match in a Storm
Collected Poems
The Welsh poet Andrew McNeillie brings together in this generous and timely volume his seven collections of poems – including his most recent, "Making Ends Meet", and his Forward-Prize-shortlisted Carcanet collection "Nevermore" (2000). McNeillie's poems possess the same precision and ear for other voices which have made him a noted nature writer and an influential editor of the handsomely designed eco-literature magazine Archipelago, and like it, take as their focus the 'unnameable archipelago' of Britain and Ireland, at its wilder margins, with close observation of place, community, and hands-on outdoor experience. His celebrated memoir "An Aran Keening" (2001) is about a year's stay on one of the islands of that Archipelago. His publishing house Clutag Press produces beautiful limited editions of work by some of his favourite writers – Hill and Heaney among them.
He is a witty writer and an ironist, but he is also a visionary in the sense that his poems sharpen vision of the environment and the crucial minutiae of the natural world we partly inhabit.
He is a witty writer and an ironist, but he is also a visionary in the sense that his poems sharpen vision of the environment and the crucial minutiae of the natural world we partly inhabit.
About the author
Andrew McNeillie was born in North Wales and read English at Magdalen College, Oxford before becoming an editor and publisher. For many years he was literature editor at Oxford University Press. He has also held a chair in English at Exeter University where he is now Emeritus Professor. He is the founding editor of the magazine "Archipelago" and runs the Clutag Press. His memoir "Once" appeared in 2009 from Seren. His Carcanet poetry collections are "Nevermore" (Oxford Poets, 2000), "Now, Then" (2002), "Slower" (2006)", "In Mortal Memory" (2010) and "Winter Moorings" (2014). His memoir, "An Aran Keening", was published in 2001.