David Kirby

A poignant portrait of a decade of transformative change, chronicling how ordinary Britons confronted crisis, braved misfortune and found their place in the postwar world. A Telegraph History 'Book of the Year' For the British people, 1947 was a momentous year. For three long months, they endured the worst winter in living memory, with drastic fuel shortages and power cuts, and continuing food rationing post–World War Two. Heavy snow gave way to widespread flooding in the spring, and by the summer, the economic crisis had deepened, forcing renewed cutbacks; the Chancellor of the Exchequer even imposed a savage tax increase on tobacco, the chief solace for much of the nation. But against this backdrop, a programme of ambitious and far-reaching reforms was being rolled out, from town and country planning to the institution of the National Health Service. Amid the misery of freezing homes, meagre food supplies and threadbare clothing, the British were on the brink of a new era of social transformation—the beginnings of the ‘Welfare State’. Drawing upon an extensive range of local newspapers, contemporary articles, films and the archives of the Mass Observation Project, Britain, 1947 reveals how ordinary people in town halls, hospitals, schools and dance halls, on the terraces of the local football club, at the pub and in homes across Britain, navigated, survived and found hope in the turbulent world of the 1940s.

The Winter Dance Party lays out, not someone's entire life, but that person's life as a poet. This enthralling, career-spanning book by the National Book Award finalist David Kirby is made up mainly of new poems along with a generous number of older ones alternating with one another in nine sections that proceed, not chronologically, but more like chapters in a surreal memoir, with long poems followed by short poems, exploratory formats next to more traditional ones, straightforward poems cheek by jowl with ones that are more allusive.

The Winter Dance Party lays out, not someone's entire life, but that person's life as a poet. This enthralling, career-spanning book by the National Book Award finalist David Kirby is made up mainly of new poems along with a generous number of older ones alternating with one another in nine sections that proceed, not chronologically, but more like chapters in a surreal memoir, with long poems followed by short poems, exploratory formats next to more traditional ones, straightforward poems cheek by jowl with ones that are more allusive.

For the British people, 1947 was a momentous year. For three long months, they endured the worst winter in living memory, with drastic fuel shortages and power cuts, and continuing food rationing post-World War Two. Heavy snow gave way to widespread flooding in the spring, and by the summer, the economic crisis had deepened, forcing renewed cutbacks; the Chancellor of the Exchequer even imposed a savage tax increase on tobacco, the chief solace for much of the nation. But against this backdrop, a programme of ambitious and far-reaching reforms was being rolled out, from town and country planning to the institution of the National Health Service. Amid the misery of freezing homes, meagre food supplies and threadbare clothing, the British were on the brink of a new era of social transformation--the beginnings of the 'Welfare State'. Drawing upon an extensive range of local newspapers, contemporary articles, films and the archives of the Mass Observation Project, Britain, 1947 reveals how ordinary people in town halls, hospitals, schools and dance halls, on the terraces of the local football club, at the pub and in homes across Britain, navigated, survived and found hope in the turbulent world of the 1940s.

Help Me, Information is propelled by the speed and motion of the poems that define earlier acclaimed books by David Kirby, poems that move the way the mind does on a good day, puddle-jumping from one topic to another and then coming in for a nice soft landing. Colloquial in tone, balancing narrative breadth with precise detail, Kirby's poetry displays his voracious curiosity about history, science, literature, and popular culture. Yet here he also reinvents himself with poems that recall the compactness of Jack Gilbert, the sweep of Allen Ginsberg, and the introspection of Frank O'Hara. Help Me, Information presents a fresh Kirby, familiar yet new.

Help Me, Information is propelled by the speed and motion of the poems that define earlier acclaimed books by David Kirby, poems that move the way the mind does on a good day, puddle-jumping from one topic to another and then coming in for a nice soft landing. Colloquial in tone, balancing narrative breadth with precise detail, Kirby's poetry displays his voracious curiosity about history, science, literature, and popular culture. Yet here he also reinvents himself with poems that recall the compactness of Jack Gilbert, the sweep of Allen Ginsberg, and the introspection of Frank O'Hara. Help Me, Information presents a fresh Kirby, familiar yet new.

More Than This, like David Kirby's previous acclaimed collections, is shot through with the roadhouse fervor of early rock 'n' roll. Yet these rollicking poems also contain an oceanic feeling more akin to the great symphonies of Europe than the two-minute singles of Little Richard and other rock pioneers, as Kirby seeks to startle, to please, to unwind the knots that we get ourselves into and make it possible to being anew. Little goes unnoticed in these poems: death is present, along with love, friendship, food, religious ardor and philosophical skepticism, nights on the town and quiet evenings at home. With More Than This, his twelfth collection, Kirby takes readers back in time and out in space, offering quiet wisdom and a sense of the endless possibilities that art and life give us all.

More Than This, like David Kirby's previous acclaimed collections, is shot through with the roadhouse fervor of early rock 'n' roll. Yet these rollicking poems also contain an oceanic feeling more akin to the great symphonies of Europe than the two-minute singles of Little Richard and other rock pioneers, as Kirby seeks to startle, to please, to unwind the knots that we get ourselves into and make it possible to being anew. Little goes unnoticed in these poems: death is present, along with love, friendship, food, religious ardor and philosophical skepticism, nights on the town and quiet evenings at home. With More Than This, his twelfth collection, Kirby takes readers back in time and out in space, offering quiet wisdom and a sense of the endless possibilities that art and life give us all.

This eagerly-awaited sequel shares the characteristics of its distinguished predecessor -- wide geographical and chronological span; expert mingling of political, social and economic history; and Dr Kirby's ability to keep the separate national threads of his account from tangling as he weaves them into the broad regional picture that is his main concern. Here he tackles the contrasting experiences of Europe's northern periphery -- affluence and democracy in the north, stagnation and authoritarianism in the south -- from the French Revolution to the collapse of the USSR and beyond. This is a masterly study of a region that is far from peripheral politically to the post-Soviet world.

In comical and complex poems, David Kirby examines our extraordinarily human condition through the lens of our ordinary daily lives. These keenly observant poems range from the streets of India, Russia, Turkey, and Port Arthur, Texas, to the imaginations of fellow poets Keats and Rilke, and to ruminations on the mundane side of life via the imperfect sandwich. Whether remembering girls' singing groups of the 1950s or recounting a child asking his priest if his dog would go to heaven, Kirby has the ability to make us laugh, but he can also bring us to tears through our laughter.

In comical and complex poems, David Kirby examines our extraordinarily human condition through the lens of our ordinary daily lives. These keenly observant poems range from the streets of India, Russia, Turkey, and Port Arthur, Texas, to the imaginations of fellow poets Keats and Rilke, and to ruminations on the mundane side of life via the imperfect sandwich. Whether remembering girls' singing groups of the 1950s or recounting a child asking his priest if his dog would go to heaven, Kirby has the ability to make us laugh, but he can also bring us to tears through our laughter.

In the autumn of 1942, British Special Operations Executive agent Ronald Sydney Seth was parachuted into German occupied Estonia, supposedly to carry out acts of sabotage against the Nazis in a plan code-named Operation Blunderhead. Uniquely, it was Seth and not the SOE who had engineered the mission, and he had no support network on the ground. It was a failure. Captured by Estonian militia, Seth was handed over to the Germans for interrogation, imprisoned and sentenced to death, but managed to evade execution by convincing his captors that he could be an asset. What happened between Seth’s capture and his return to England in the dying days of the war reads, at times, like a novel – inhabiting a Gestapo safe house, acting as a stool pigeon, entrusted with a mission sanctioned by Heinrich Himmler – yet much of it is true, albeit highly embellished by Seth, who was quite capable of weaving the most elaborate fantasies. He was an unlikely hero, whose survival owed more to his ability to spin a tale than to any daring qualities. Operation Blunderhead is a compelling and original account of an extraordinary episode of the Second World War – a brilliant blend of fact and fiction, contrasting material taken from SOE and MI5 files with Seth’s own fantastical story.

This is the first in a sequence of books which explores the history of The Baltic World and Northern Europe. In this period, Sweden was a major European power, occupying a central position in international politics. Her rise and decline, and the passing of regional hegemony to the new powers of Russia and Prussia, are central features in the book. Dr Kirby describes the evolving social and political systems of the principal Baltic states of the time, he gives the key events and processes in European history a new interest and freshness by showing them from the unfamiliar perspective of the northern world.