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
is published on his 60th birthday at the same time as the first critical
study of his work, Reading George Szirtes 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; and, 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 celebrated long poems and extended sequences, The Photographer in
Winter, Metro, The Courtyards, An English Apocalypse and Reel, all
included here.