John Burnside Books

Though we might not realise it, our collective memory of the twentieth century was defined by the poets who lived and wrote in it. At every significant turning point we find them, pen in hand, fingers poised at the typewriter, ready to distil the essence of the moment, from the muddy wastes of the Western front to the vast reckoning that came with the end of empire. This is the first and only history of twentieth century poetry, by the acclaimed poet, author and academic John Burnside. Bringing together poets from times and places as diverse as Tsarist Russia, 1960's America and Ireland at the height of the Troubles, The Music of Time reveals how poets engaged with and shaped the most important issues of their times - and were in their turn affected by their context and dialogue with each other. This is a major work of scholarship, that on every page bears witness to the transformative beauty and power of poetry.

The book was originally published in a slightly different format in Great Britain in 2019 by Profile Books Ltd. It offers insights or narratives that reflect its unique publication history and context.

Essays on extinction, death, renewal and continuity by the acclaimed writer and poet. Prompted by his own near death experience Burnside reflects on the stories of the auroch, the great auk, and of humanity.

In the early 80s, after a decade of drug abuse and borderline mental illness, the author resolved to escape his addictive personality and find calm in a 'Surbiton of the mind'. This title tells is an account of a troubled childhood.

A memoir of two lost men: a father and his child. It is about forgiving, about examining the way men are made and how they fall apart, about understanding that in order to have a good son you must have a good father.

Lucid, lyrical and intellectually profound: this collection of poems resonates with real life and death, but mostly what falls in between: the charmed darkness.0Several ghosts haunt Learning to Sleep, John Burnside's first collection of poetry in four years - from the author's mother, commemorated in an exquisitely charged variant on the pastoral elegy, to the poet Arthur Rimbaud, who wanders an implausible Lincolnshire landscape looking for some sign of belonging. Throughout the book, the powers and dominions of a lost pagan ancestry emerge unexpectedly through the gaps in contemporary life: half-seen and fleeting, but profoundly present. Behind it all, the figure of Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep, marks Burnside's own attempts to come to terms with the severe sleep disorder from which he has suffered for years, a condition that culminated in the recent near-death experience that informs the latter part of the book. 0Add to this a series of provocative meditations on the ways in which we are all harmed by institutions, from organised religion, or marriage, to the tawdry concepts of gender and romantic love that subtly govern our personal lives, and Learning to Sleep reveals Burnside at his most elegiac, while still retaining a radical pagan's sense of celebration and cultural independence.0 'For my money, John Burnside is by far the best British poet alive... I read it over and over again, marvelling at its concision and beauty.' Cressida Connolly, Spectator0** A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021**

Charles Arrowby, a well-known theatre director, has come to live in a lonely house beside the sea. However, his longed for life of simplicity and solitude is shortlived: the house appears haunted, a strange creature emerges from the sea, women from whom he intended to escape, reappear. The Sea, The Sea is a remarkable book, distinguished by the power and depth of Miss Murdoch's imaginative vision, a novel which has deservedly received high critical and popular acclaim.

The children of Innertown exist in a state of suspended terror. Every year or so, a boy from their school disappears, vanishing into the wasteland of the old chemical plant. Nobody knows where these boys go, or whether they are alive or dead, and without evidence the authorities claim they are simply runaways. The town policeman, Morrison knows otherwise. He was involved in the cover-up of one boy's murder, and he believes all the boys have been killed. Though he is seriously compromised, he would still like to find out the killer's identity. The local children also want to know and, in their fear and frustration, they turn on Rivers, a sad fantasist and suspected paedophile living alone at the edge of the wasteland. Trapped and frightened, one of the boys, Leonard, tries to escape, taking refuge in the poisoned ruins of the old plant; there he finds another boy, who might be the missing Liam and might be a figment of his imagination. With his help, Leonard comes to understand the policeman's involvement, and exacts the necessary revenge - before following Liam into the Glister: possibly a disused chemical weapons facility, possibly a passage to the outer world. A terrifying exploration of loss and the violence that pools under the surface of the everyday, Glister is an exquisitely written, darkly imagined novel by one of our greatest contemporary writers.

What does it mean to live with integrity in the United States of America? That is the question haunting John Burnside's new novel... The way that Burnside layers these stories is masterful, and becomes a meditation on storytelling itself. Duncan White Daily Telegraph

In this exquisite, haunting book, John Burnside describes his coming of age from the industrial misery of Cowdenbeath and Corby to the new world of Cambridge. This is a memoir of romance âe" of lost love and the love of being lost âe" darkened by threat, illuminated by glamour. The old Scots word âe~glamourâe(tm) means magical charm, and the first time he was played I Put a Spell on You, John Burnside thought he had never heard a more beautiful song âe" it was an enchantment, a fascination that would turn to obsession. Implicit in the song were all the ambiguities that intrigued him âe" love, possession and danger âe" and this book is an exploration of the darker side of glamour and attraction. Beginning with memories of a brutal murder, the book follows the author through a series of uncanny encounters with âe~lost girlsâe(tm), with brilliant digressions on murder ballads, voodoo, acid and insomnia, and a cast that includes Kafka and Narcissus, Diane Arbus and Mel Lyman, The Four Tops and Screaminâe(tm) Jay Hawkins, and time spent lost in the Arctic Circle, black-and-white films and a mental institution. Ending with the tender summoning of the ghost of his dying mother as she sings along to the radio in her empty kitchen, I Put a Spell on You is a book about memory, about the other side of love: a book of secrets and wonders.