Despite working away from the literary limelight as an archaeologist, this "secular mystic with the lugubrious tongue" (The Independent), has attracted a dedicated readership. His staggering powers of invention, outrageous flouting of convention and subversive humor are now fully and flagrantly displayed in this collection of poems selected from his three previous collections as well as a number of new ones. Some of Peter Didsbury's invention is pure play, some hints at a rich humane vision that yields a kind of surrealism all its own. This volume is a feast of imaginative wonders destined to win him many new readers.
