Paperback 6" x 9"
339pp
ISBN 978-1-913144-57-9
Published Jan 2024
These reviews
first appeared on-line on the PP website
JIM BURNS was born in Preston in 1936. He left school at 16 and
went to work in a cotton mill. He spent three years in the army,
and later worked at various jobs while at the same time
publishing poems, stories, articles, and reviews in New
Society, The Guardian, New Statesman, Jazz Journal, Jazz
Monthly, Evergreen Review, Transatlantic Review, and many
other publications. He was a regular contributor to Tribune
for over 30 years and has contributed to Ambit since
the early-1960s. He is currently the Assistant Editor of
Beat Scene. In the 1960s he edited the little magazine,
Move, and he was editor of Palantir (1976-1983).
Before retiring he taught adult education classes for the WEA
and Manchester University Extension Studies.
"Burns celebrates the North, the Unions and the less privileged
of the Two Nations. He is humane, randy, and highly skilled."
Peter Porter, The Observer
"Jim Burns is a poet whose laconic style sprang from his love
of a certain American mode. One of England's leading enthusiasts
on beat writing, on jazz of the forties, and on Hollywood film
noir."
Jeff Nuttall, The Guardian
"He is very droll, anecdotal, northern, unfoolable."
Anthony Thwaite, The Sunday Telegraph
"He's a poet, editor (of Move and Palantir,
two fantastically influential and important magazines of the
last three decades), and perhaps most importantly, a reviewer
and essayist chronicling the margins of literature: the
forgotten poets, the outside influences, the one-novel
novelists, the figures who clambered to the edge of the public
eye for a brief second and then fell off."
Ian McMillan, Poetry Review
