Afterburner

Description

Following the terrific success of Max is Missing - winner of the Forward Prize for best poetry collection - Peter Porter has produced another book of great power and erudition. 'Afterburner' - the device that provides the extra thrust to a turbojet - is a thoroughly appropriate title for this fuel-injected late work. From his lengthening perspective and high vantage, no one is better placed than Porter to give these subtle meditations on art, life and the social mores - and few could manage them with such compassion and humour. Afterburner will further enhance his reputation as one of the finest poets writing in English today.

Peter Porter arrived in Britain fifty years ago and has lived there ever since. Since 1974, he has visited his native Australia often and considers himself part of the present-day poetical worlds of both nations. Since 1968 he has been a freelance literary journalist and reviewer. He has published sixteen books of poems, plus four further volumes with the Australian painter, Arthur Boyd. He has been married twice and has, with his second wife, eight grandchildren.