George Szirtes (Poet and translator)

[cameron]

Some of you may be interested in my latest interview on Literary Norfolk:

http://www.literarynorfolk.co.uk/george ... erview.htm

[David]

An illustrious resident! Mind you, I don't think I've read any of his poetry.

Cheers

David

[Wabznasm]

Terrific, nice one Cam. He's a nice bloke isn't he? He came down to Kent recently.

I'm a big fan of his work though, even if he could cut down his collections by half and still have award winners.

Looking forward to reading this in full.

[cameron]

Yes, he's been very helpful. He's also amazingly prompt. I've emailed him a couple of times now to request use of his poems and the attachment comes back by return of post. In fact, I'm just about to post up 12 of his sonnets entitled: Norfolk Fields. I'll add the link to this thread when they're up. They're dedicated to W.G. Sebald.

[cameron]

Here they are:

http://www.literarynorfolk.co.uk/Poems/ ... fields.htm

Mighty fine sonnets IMO.

[Ros]

I'm not a connoisseur of sonnets, but I thought these were wonderful. Well worth a read. I shall have to explore more of his work.

Ros

[k-j]

Cam, those Szirtes sonnets are superb. Absolutely incredible, thanks for posting them. I was leafing through his (fairly hefty) Selected in Waterstones on my recent visit to blighty, but wasn't as taken as I'd hoped to be.

[cameron]

Yea, he makes them look so easy doesn't he? But as anyone who entered the PG sonnet competition a few years back will know - they can be right little buggers.

He also provided me with helpful geographical info about the sonnets:

'You may be interested to know that the warehouse in the first section of Norfolk Fields was next to Wymondham Station (it has been closed for a good while now, but the buidlng still stands); section 4 is pure Wymondham (those are the actual names on the war memorial); the 1580s mural in section 6 is in Peter Scupham's house in South Burlingham; the pier in section 7 is the one at Cromer (the pier appears in a number of other poems); the damp house in section 9 is in Wymondham, near the entrance to the Abbey graveyard, and the old woman is the late Lady Tetley. Section 10 is definitely Wymondham, along with its sheltered housing, the 'gerontopolis'. The rest is here, there and everywhere.


You can go through quite a bit of An English Apocalypse (and Reel too) finding bits of the landscape.'

Top bloke.

[Ros]

You may all then be interested to know that he's going to be the IBPC judge this summer.