New & Collected Poems

George Szirtes came to Britain as an eight-year-old refugee after the Hungarian uprising in 1956' Educated in England, he trained as a painter, and has always written in English. This comprehensive retrospective of his work covers poetry from over a dozen collections written over four decades, with a substantial gathering of new poems. It was published on his 60th birthday in 2008 at the same time as the first critical study of his work, "e;Reading George Szirtes"e; by John Sears. Haunted by his family's knowledge and experience of war, occupation and the Holocaust, as well as by loss, danger and exile, all of Szirtes' poetry covers universal themes: love, desire and illusion; loyalty and betrayal; history, art and memory; humanity and truth. Throughout his work there is a conflict between two states of mind, the possibility of happiness and apprehension of disaster. These are played out especially in his celebratedlong poems and extended sequences, "e;The Photographer in Winter"e;, "e;Metro"e;, "e;TheCourtyards"e;, "e;An English Apocalypse"e; and "e;Reel"e;, all included here.