Book description
A selection of Linton Kwesi Johnson's best poems over three decades.
Ranging from protests against police brutality to eulogies for departed
friends and playful celebrations of urban life, Johnson's use of
Jamaican dialect to tackle distinctly British subjects contributed to a
revolution in the notion of literary English. This Selected Poems charts
the unique literary talent of one of Britain's most influential poets
and social critics. Linton Kwesi Johnson is known and revered as the
world's first dub poet. Born in Chapelton, a small town in the parish of
Clarendon, Jamaica, he came to England in 1963. He gained a sociology
degree in the mid-1970s from Goldsmiths' College, London, and had poems,
inspired by politics and the Black movement, published in the journal
Race Today. He is an Associate Fellow of Warwick University, an Honorary
Fellow of Wolverhampton Polytechnic and received an award at the 13th
Premo Internazionale Ultimo Novecento for his contribution to poetry and
popular music. He has toured the world from Japan to South Africa,
Europe to Brazil, and is only the second living poet to have been
published by Penguin Classics.
