A Return to Flanders

- a new epic poem by the UK's most-published living poet, Martin Newell - with illustrations by Andrew Dodds.

A Return To Flanders is a moving 350-line poem in ten chapters, about the effect of the Great War on Newell's family and indirectly, upon the writer himself. Little more than that needs to be said. We recommend instead, that the reader opens the book and begins to read.

"One

In dust of this museum
Lit dully by the sun
The specks like tiny planets
Go drifting one by one
The souls of sleeping soldiers
Suspended in their prime
Who heard the bells of Arras
And settled, after time.

Troop dutifully by now
Exhibits of the years
The mortar shells and badges
The pay-books in arrears
The trenching spades and buckles
Of sergeants and recruits
Who left their rusting helmets
Their billy-cans and boots"

Martin Newell is currently poet-in-residence with The Independent On Sunday and previously wrote for The Independent for twelve years. A former rock musician, Newell has become well-known over the past decade for his satirical rhyming verse. He has frequently appeared on radio and TV is the subject of a forthcoming TV documentary A Life Of Rhyme.. He has published ten collections of verse and one rock memoir. He lives in north Essex.

Jardine Press 2004
ISBN 0 9539472 8 9
115 x 150mm, 120pp
£4.95