Nayler & Folly Wood

Peter Bennet was born in Staffordshire in 1942. He went as a scholarship boy to King’s School Macclesfield, and then to Manchester College of Art and Design, where he was influenced by Norman Adams and his wife, the poet Anna Adams. He taught in secondary and further education, including work with redundant steelworkers following the closure of Consett Steel Works, and spent sixteen years as Tutor Organiser for Northumberland with the Workers’ Educational Association. He gave up painting for writing in 1980 and did a part-time MA at Newcastle University, including a study of W.S.Graham.His first Bloodaxe retrospective, Border (2013), covered work from books including Goblin Lawn (2005), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, The Glass Swarm (2008), a Poetry Book Society Choice which was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, and The Game of Bear (2011), all published by Flambard Press, and was followed by Mischief in 2018. His new retrospective, Nayler & Folly Wood (2023), is a Poetry Book Society Special Commendnation. It includes his major sequences, The Long Pack, Jigger Nods, Folly Wood and Bobby Bendick’s Ride, Landscape with Psyche and Ladderedge and Cotislea, along with a new sequence, Nayler, as well as new poems and earlier work not included in Border. He has received major awards from New Writing North and Arts Council England and been a prizewinner in the National and the Arvon International Poetry Competitions, and in the Basil Bunting Awards.He lived for thirty-three years near the Wild Hills o’Wanney in Northumberland, in a cottage associated with the ballad writer James Armstrong, author of Wannie Blossoms. He now lives in North Shields.

• 13 Light on the Wanney Crags14 Crazy Dog15 The Silence16 Lottie Little and the Trees17 Souvenir of Malling18 Síle na Gig or Playmate of the Month19 Barmaid20 Funny Man21 Looking Through a Parched Sea Holly Bush22 Fête Day at Bellingham24 Not at Home25 Hareshaw Linn26 Winter Hills27 Duddo Stones28 Face Painting at Threpwood Hill29 First Calf30 At the Queen’s Hall31 The Old Moor House32 Cancer Patient33 Extraction34 Logan Street35 The Murrough Lady38 Berenson at the Borghese39 The Exhibition of the Esquimaux41 Le Plan des Pennes43 THE LONG PACK63 Ha-Ha64 Spalpeen65 Tithonus at Kielder66 Fairytale67 The Fossil68 The Damp Harmonium69 The Pigeon Loft70 Squiffy71 Breathe Carefully72 The Imp73 The Sally Garden74 The Angel75 JIGGER NODS97 The Silver of the Mirror99 The Squirrel100 The Redesdale Rowan101 The Tourist102 Après-midi103 St George’s Day104 Black Country Browning105 FOLLY WOOD116 The Brass Band118 The Acorn119 The Green Corn120 The Bather121 Unity in the Englischer Garten122 Penny Dreadful123 BOBBY BENDICK'S RIDE132 Epithalamium133 Sentinels134 The Owl Herb135 Augenlicht136 Mademoiselle de Silhouette137 The Mistress138 The Place I Am139 The Riddle140 Auberge141 The Unsafe Landing142 The Comfort Service143 The Laboratory144 A Helpmeet for Protestant Mystics145 The Better Place146 Gantries147 The Magic Castle149 LANDSCAPE WITH PSYCHE156 Proxy157 Next Time158 After Pevsner159 Pastoral160 Virgil161 French Windows162 Sanquar163 LADDEREDGE AND COTISLEA174 The Gypsy Fiddle175 The Vapour Trail176 Death and the Spinster177 My Mother at Erbistock178 A Piano in Hobart181 NAYLER219 Vade Mecum220 Graduands221 The Scare222 À Côté de la Sorgues223 Iron Railings224 MCMLVI225 The Promenade226 The Lucky Ones227 Taliesin228 The Floor Above229 Night Wanderers230 Ex Sublimis231 Icarus232 The Doorstop233 Vale Royal234 Klutvang235 Gestalt236 Neck Verse237 The Kite238 The Refugee239 Hemistich240 An Invitation241 The Goodbye Note242 Shadowed Water243 My Mephistopheles245 Notes

Peter Bennet considers the moments of interaction between past and present, fairytale and fact, using folklore’s staples to cast light on contemporary concerns. His watchful, thicketed landscapes, the stateliness of his language, all fit themselves perfectly to winter. This is fireside poetry.