Book description
When Michael Donaghy died in 2004 - unexpectedly at the tragically
young age of 50, of a brain aneurism - the UK lost one of its best-loved
poets. Michael was not only a brilliant, prize-laden poet and performer
of his own work, but a great teacher and inspirer of others. Coverage of
his death was unprecedented. Picador published his final book a year
later, and it met with great critical acclaim. Now we have collected
together all his mature work, including around twenty previously
unpublished pieces. Published together with his Collected Prose, this as
a major literary event. We have commissioned a major critical essay from
pre-eminent poetry critic, Sean O'Brien. This is a hugely important book
by a writer who will come to be regarded as a late-modern metaphysical,
and one of the representative voices of the age. Michael Donaghy was
exceptionally talented in the simple business of the composition of
verses. His books are full of wonderful stories, immensely readable and
entertaining the first time round; and all reveal, through subsequent
readings, astonishing and often dark layers.
Michael Donaghy was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1954. In 1985 he
moved to London, where he worked as a teacher and traditional Irish
musician. He died in 2004.
