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BLADE RUNNER: POCKET MOVIE GUIDE This book is a guide to the 1982 movie made from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick - Blade Runner. A thorough exploration of Blade Runner forms the core of the book, looking at the conception, production, themes, critical reception and influence of the 1982 Warner Brothers movie in every detail. Philip Kindred Dick (1928-1982) was a key figure in 20th century science fiction, famous for embracing drugs and the counter-culture in his work. Dick's fiction includes The Man In the High Castle, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, A Scanner Darkly, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Valis, The Divine Invasion, Martian Time-Slip, The Minority Report, and We Can Remember It For You Wholesale. Dick's themes included perception and reality, drugs, state control, global capitalism, surveillance, and paranoia. On its initial release, Blade Runner grossed $27 million in the United States, placing it no. 16 in that year's box office chart (it was released on June 25, 1982, in 1,290 theatres in the U.S.A.). 1982 was the year, of course, of E.T. The films that came in way behind Steven Spielberg's Universal fantasy were Tootsie at no. 2, An Officer and a Gentleman third, and Rocky 3 in fourth place. Other sci-fi and fantasy flicks in 1982 included Star Trek 2, Conan the Barbarian, Mad Max 2 and The Thing. Blade Runner is often trotted out as another big, important picture that flopped on its theatrical release. That isn't quite true, but it certainly wasn't a hit movie by any standards. The opening weekend was pretty good, but the movie seemed to fade away rapidly after that. Many reviewers and critics came out against Blade Runner on its first release, including Roger Ebert, Pauline Kael, Sheila Benson, and Janet Maslin. 'Muddled', 'gruesome', 'pretentious' and 'overheated' were some of the words used to describe it. Since then, Blade Runner has rightly achieved cult as well as classic status. Its influence on science fiction and sci-fi cinema has been enormous (this book looks at some of the movies inspired by Blade Runner, including Ghost In the Shell, Akira, Brazil and Batman). Fully illustrated. Pocket size. Bibliography, filmography and notes. ISBN 971861714251. www.crmoon.com

LAND ART IN THE U.S.A. A study of land art in America, featuring all of the well-known land artists from the 'golden age' of land art - the 1960s - to the present day. This book explores all of the major American land, environmental and earthwork artists of the past 40 years, as well as European land artists working in North America. The book includes chapters on James Turrell and his vast volcano site ¿ Michael Heizer's Mid-West earthworks ¿ Robert Smithson and his giant spiral, entropic earthworks ¿ Robert Morris's environments and observatories ¿ Walter de Maria's Romantic Lightning Field and Earth Room ¿ Dennis Oppenheim's concentric snow circles ¿ Alice Aycock's mysterious underground mazes ¿ Mary Miss's sunken pools and pavilions ¿ Nancy Holt and her observation sculptures ¿ and the enigmatic floor sculptures of Carl Andre. And Europeans such as: Hans Haacke's Conceptual art ¿ Richard Long and his art of walking ¿ Andy Goldsworthy's natural, spontaneous, eco-friendly sculptures ¿ and Christo's wrapped buildings and islands. EXTRACT FROM THE CHAPTER ON ROBERT SMITHSON Robert Smithson is the key land artist, the premier artist in the world of land art. And he's been a big favourite with art critics since the early Seventies. Smithson was the chief mouthpiece of American earth/ site aesthetics, and is probably the most important artist among all land artists. For Robert Smithson, Carl Andre, Walter de Maria, Michael Heizer, Dennis Oppenheim and Tony Smith were 'the more compelling artists today, concerned with 'Place' or 'Site''. Smithson was impressed by Tony Smith's vision of the mysterious aspects of a dark unfinished road and called Smith 'the agent of endlessness'. Smith's aesthetic became part of Smithson's view of art as a complete 'site', not simply an aesthetic of sculptural objects. Smithson was not inspired by ancient religious sculpture, by burial mounds, for example, so much as by decayed industrial sites. He visited some in the mid-1960s that were 'in some way disrupted or pulverized'. He said he was looking for a 'denaturalization rather than built up scenic beauty'. Robert Smithson said he was concerned, like many land (and contemporary artists with the thing in itself, not its image, its effect, its critical significance: 'I am for an art that takes into account the direct effect of the elements as they exist from day to day apart from representation'. Smithson's theory of the 'non-site' was based on 'absence, a very ponderous, weighty absence'. Smithson proposed a theory of a dialectic between absence and presence, in which the 'non-site' and 'site' are both interacting. In the 'non-site' work, presence and absence are there simultaneously. 'The land or ground from the Site is placed in the art (Non-Site) rather than the art is placed on the ground. The Non-Site is a container within another container - the room'. William Malpas has written books on Richard Long and land art, as well as three books on Andy Goldsworthy, including the forthcoming Andy Goldsworthy In America. Malpas's books on Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy are the only full-length studies of these artists available. Fully illustrated, with a newly revised text for this edition. Bibliography and notes. ISBN 9781861714060. 328 pages. www.crmoon.com

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING: POCKET MOVIE GUIDE A pocket guide to the Hollywood adaption of the third part of J.R.R. Tolkien's 1950s fantasy epic book The Lord of the Rings, released in 2003. The book tells you everything you need to know about this popular movie, from writing the script through casting and financing, to shooting and performances, to visual effects, editing and theatrical distribution. The pocket guide includes discussions of every single scene in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, including the Special Extended Edition (including some key individual shots). There are sections on the all of the important differences between The Lord of the Ring book and the movie adaption of The Return of the King (including numerous details), as well a chapter exploring the additions and the omissions. Looks at behind the scenes stories, and also the critical response to the 2003 picture. There are chapters on the visual effects, on the casting and key personnel of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, on the studio and the financing of the production, on the music and sound, and the marketing and release of the movie in 2003 (including the home entertainment releases on DVD and video). There is also a chapter on the critical assessment of the movie. There is also an appendix on other adaptions of J.R.R. Tolkien's books, a detailed filmography, plus info on availability and websites. Jeremy Robinson has written many critical studies, including Steven Spielberg, Arthur Rimbaud, Jean-Luc Godard, Hayao Miyazaki, Ken Russell, Walerian Borowczyk, and The Sacred Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky, plus literary monographs on: J.R.R. Tolkien; J.M.W. Turner; Samuel Beckett; Thomas Hardy; Arthur Rimbaud; André Gide; John Cowper Powys; Robert Graves; and Lawrence Durrell. Includes bibliography, illustrations, appendices and notes. ISBN 9781861713827. 300 pages. www.crmoon.com

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS: POCKET MOVIE GUIDE A pocket guide to the Hollywood adaption of the second part of J.R.R. Tolkien's 1950s fantasy epic book The Lord of the Rings, released in 2002. The book tells you everything you need to know about this popular movie, from writing the script through casting and financing, to shooting and performances, to visual effects, editing and theatrical distribution. The pocket guide includes discussions of every single scene in The Two Towers, including the Special Extended Edition (including some key individual shots). There are sections on the all of the important differences between The Lord of the Ring book and the movie adaption of The Two Towers (including numerous details), as well a chapter exploring the additions and the omissions. Looks at behind the scenes stories, and also the critical response to the 2002 picture. There are chapters on the visual effects, on the casting and key personnel of The Two Towers, on the studio and the financing of the production, on the music and sound, and the marketing and release of the movie in 2002 (including the home entertainment releases on DVD and video). There is also a chapter on the critical assessment of the movie. There is also an appendix on other adaptions of J.R.R. Tolkien's books, a detailed filmography, plus info on availability and websites. Jeremy Robinson has written many critical studies, including Steven Spielberg, Arthur Rimbaud, Jean-Luc Godard, Hayao Miyazaki, Ken Russell, Walerian Borowczyk, and The Sacred Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky, plus literary monographs on: J.R.R. Tolkien; J.M.W. Turner; Samuel Beckett; Thomas Hardy; Arthur Rimbaud; André Gide; John Cowper Powys; Robert Graves; and Lawrence Durrell. Includes bibliography, illustrations, appendices and notes. ISBN 9781861713810. 292 pages. www.crmoon.com

BEAUTIES, BEASTS AND ENCHANTMENT: CLASSIC FRENCH FAIRY TALES A beautiful new collection of 36 French fairy tales translated into English by renowned writer and authority on fairy tales, Jack Zipes. Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Sleepy Beauty, Puss In Boots, Bluebeard, and Little Red Riding Hood are some of the classic fairy tales in this amazing book. There are many stories here by Charles Perrault, the most famous author of French conte de fées. Includes a generous number of exquisite illustrations from fairy tale collections. 'Terrific... a succulent array of 17th and 18th century 'salon' fairy tales' - The New York Times Book Review 'These tales are adventurous, thrilling in a way fairy tales are meant to be... The translation from the French is modern, happily free of archaic and hyperbolic language... a fine and sophisticated collection' - New York Tribune 'Enjoyable to read... a unique collection of French regional folklore' - Library Journal 'Charming stories accompanied by attractive pen-and-ink drawings' - Chattanooga Times 'An excellent collection' - Booklist. JACK ZIPES is professor emeritus of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota. In addition to his scholarly work, he is an active storyteller in public schools and has worked with children's theaters in Europe and the United States. Some of Jack Zipes' major publications include Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales (1979), Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion (1983, rev. ed. 2006), Don't Bet On the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North America and England (1986), The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World (1988), Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of Children's Literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter (2000), Speaking Out: Storytelling and Creative Drama For Children (2004), Hans Christian Andersen: The Misunderstood Storyteller (2005), and Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre (2006). Jack Zipes has also translated The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (1987) and edited The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (2000), and The Great Fairy Tale Tradition (2001). Most recently he has translated and edited The Folk and Fairy Tales of Giuseppe Pitre (2008) and Lucky Hans and Other Merz Fairy Tales (2008) by Kurt Schwitters. Includes illustrations and a new introduction. ISBN 9781861713193. 610 pages. www.crmoon.com

SAMUEL DANIEL: DELIA: ELIZABETHAN SONNET CYCLE Samuel Daniel's 'Delia' is one of the major Elizabethan sonnet sequences, reprinted here in an attractive new edition. 'Delia' is a sonnet cycle of love poetry, and some of the finest verse in the English language. The book includes a note on Samuel Daniel, illustrations, and suggestions for further reading. Each poem has a page to itself. It's a useful edition for students. Samuel Daniel was born in 1562 in Taunton, Somerset. He was educated at Oxford (Magdalen Hall); he worked as a tutor (to William Herbert), and a court official. His patrons included Fulke Greville and the Earl of Devonshire. He wrote plays as well as poetry (his 1605 'Philotas' tragedy was deemed anti-royal, and sympathetic to the Earl of Essex's rebellion). He died in 1619. Samuel Daniel's 'Delia' was first published in a pirated edition in 1591 (alongside Sir Philip Sidney's 'Astrophel and Stella'). In 1592, Daniel published his own edition of 'Delia: Contayning Certayne Sonnets: With the Complaint of Rosamond' (50 poems). 'Delia' was reprinted and revised in 1592 (again), 1594, 1595, 1598, 1601, 1602, 1622 and 1632. Delia (another name for the goddess Diana) may have been addressed to Sir Philip Sidney's sister, the Countess of Pembroke (she is one of the recurring figures in Elizabethan sonneteering, and Delia was dedicated to her). Someone who lived in Beckington, Wiltshire (close to where Samuel Daniel lived), has also been suggested. Illustrated. Bibliography and note. ISBN 9781861712912. 96 pages. www.crmoon.com

HENRY CONSTABLE: DIANA: ELIZABETHAN SONNET CYCLE Henry Constable's 'Diana' is one of the major Elizabethan sonnet sequences, reprinted here in an attractive new edition. 'Diana' is a sonnet cycle of love poetry, and some of the finest verse in the English language. The book includes a note on Henry Constable, illustrations, and suggestions for further reading. Each poem has a page to itself. It's a useful edition for students. Henry Constable was born in 1562; he studied at Cambridge (1580); converted to Catholicism around 1590; he worked as a spy in Europe, returning to England in 1603. He died in Liège in 1613 after being arrested in 1604 (after which he lived in poverty), and banished in 1610. Henry Constable's 'Diana: The Praises of His Mistress In Certain Sweete Sonnets' was published first in 1592 (it contained only 23 sonnets). There is some confusion about which of the Diana sonnets Constable wrote (Constable was in Europe at the time), in the 1594 edition ('Diana or the Excellent Conceitful Sonnets of H.C. Augmented With Divers Quatorzains of Honorable and Lerned Personages'). In the later, 1594 'Diana', there are 8 decades of 76 sonnets. Some of the sonnets were written by Sir Philip Sidney (as indicated). The identity of Diana is unknown, although Henry Constable did address some sonnets to Lady Rich, the woman who inspired Stella in Sir Philip Sidney's 'Astrophel and Stella'. Illustrated. Bibliography and note. ISBN 9781861711083. 108 pages. www.crmoon.com

GERMAN POPULAR STORIES BY THE BROTHERS GRIMM A reprint of the famous Brothers Grimm book of fairy tales, German Popular Stories (a.k.a. Children's and Household Tales or Kinder- und Hausmärchen). This book, published for the centenary of the 1812 Children's and Household Tales, 'radically changed the destiny of what we today call the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm'. The book features the 1868 book of Edgar Taylor's translations of the Brothers Grimm, the first translations of the tales into English, which included reprints of the first two editions of 1823 and 1826 of the Grimms' stories in one volume, plus the original notes by Taylor. The book is illustrated with remarkable drawings by one of the great artists of the Victorian era, George Cruikshank, with an introduction by John Ruskin. The wealth of additional material includes letters by Sir Walter Scott and the Grimms, a note on Cruikshank, extracts from Gammer Grethel, Taylor's follow-up Grimm book, and R. Meek's Introduction to the 1876 edition of Grimm's Goblins: Grimm's Household Stories. Many famous fairy tales are included here, making their first, influential appearance in English: 'The Fisherman and his Wife', 'Tom Thumb', 'The Elves and the Shoemaker', 'King Grisly-beard', 'The Juniper Tree', 'Hansel and Gretel', and 'Snow White'. Edited and introduced by renowned writer and authority on fairy tales, Jack Zipes, professor emeritus of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota. In addition to his scholarly work, he is an active storyteller in public schools and has worked with children's theaters in Europe and the United States. Some of Jack Zipes' major publications include Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales (1979), Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion (1983, rev. ed. 2006), Don't Bet On the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North America and England (1986), The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World (1988), Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of Children's Literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter (2000), Speaking Out: Storytelling and Creative Drama For Children (2004), Hans Christian Andersen: The Misunderstood Storyteller (2005), Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre (2006), and a guide to fairy tales cinema (2011). Jack Zipes has also translated The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (1987) and edited The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (2000), and The Great Fairy Tale Tradition (2001). Most recently he has translated and edited The Folk and Fairy Tales of Giuseppe Pitre (2008) and Lucky Hans and Other Merz Fairy Tales (2008) by Kurt Schwitters. Includes illustrations, bibliography, appendices and notes. ISBN 9781861713964. 432 pages. www.crmoon.com

JOHN HUGHES AND EIGHTIES CINEMA John Hughes is the acclaimed writer and director of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty In Pink and many other classic movies of the 1980s. This book is the first full-length analysis of all of John Hughes's films throughout the 1980s; not only the features that he directed, but also those for which he provided the screenplay. By analysing these pictures and discussing their social and cultural significance in the wider context of the decade, Hughes's importance as a filmmaker will be considered, and his prominent contribution to cinema assessed. The book concludes with a detailed analysis of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a film which is considered to be among Hughes's most critically successful works and also one of his most structurally refined. The new edition has been updated and revised in the wake of John Hughes' death in 2009. Full illustrated. With bibliography, filmography and notes. 372 pages. ISBN 9781861713896. www.crmoon.com REVIEW ON AMAZON If like me, you were fortunate enough to live through and grow up during the 80's and early 90's, you'll remember just how rich comedy was back then. This book on it's own puts most comedies of the modern era to shame as it is a homage to one of the most talented minds in the game. I am of course speaking of none other than the late great John Hughes. This is a great book for getting into the details of how a master of his art came about and created such cinematic gems. Hughes will be sorely missed which is why books like this keep his spirit and work alive! I'd say this book is for people who are nostalgic 20-somethings or cinema buffs, but all-round a good book for just about anyone who would like to know what made one of the funniest minds of Hollywood tick. EXTRACT FROM THE INTRODUCTION Think of the American cinema of the 1980s, and your mind is instantly bombarded by dozens and dozens of flamboyant moving images from this most distinctive of cinematic decades. You might be thinking of films which became classics such as Irvin Kershner's The Empire Strikes (1980), Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Robert Zemeckis's Back to the Future (1985), or possibly even Tim Burton's Batman (1989). It was a decade that gave birth to some film franchises - one need only call to mind John Rambo's explosive first appearance in Ted Kotcheff's First Blood (1982), the harrowing exploits of Officer Murphy in Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop (1987), or even the improbably long-running knockabout antics of Cadet Mahoney and his fellow recruits which began with Hugh Wilson's Police Academy (1984). It was against this creatively abundant background of the Eighties film world that audiences were first introduced to the work of influential director and screenwriter John Hughes (1950-2009).

JASPER JOHNS A revised and updated introduction to the art of Jasper Johns. Illustrated. www.crmoon.com American artist Jasper Johns was born in 1930 in Augusta, Georgia, and grew up in Allendale, South Carolina. He moved to New York City in 1949, where he remained for much of his life (more recently he has lived in Connecticut). Johns was associated with artists such as Marcel Duchamp, one of his heroes, and Robert Rauschenberg, with whom he lived in 1950s. His ¿rst solo show was in 1958 (at Leo Castelli in Gotham). Johns has become one of the U.S.A.'s premier artists, guaranteed a mention in any critical study or art history book of modern art and contemporary art, American art, and avant garde art. Jasper Johns' reputation was greatly enhanced in the late Eighties by the boom in the economics of the art world: on November 9, 1988, Johns' White Flag fetched $7 million in a sale of the Burton and Emily Tremaine collection. Johns' False Start went for $17 million the following day, from Victor W. Ganz's collection. These were huge prices for a living artist. Jasper Johns works very closely with his paintings, becoming absorbed totally in the surfaces, as a his friend Michael Crichton wrote: when he is working, Jasper is totally concentrated on those surfaces. He lives in those surfaces. The surfaces are his whole world, they are everything. He loses himself in them. They are everything. Jasper Johns works intuitively, instinctively: 'One works without thinking how to work,' he has said. And: 'I have no ideas about what the paintings imply about the world. I don't think that's a painter's business. He just paints paintings without a conscious reason.' Johns has faith in the power of the unconscious: it would work out what needed to be done: 'The thing is, if you believe in the unconscious - and I do - there's room for all kinds of possibilities that I don't know how you prove one way or another.'

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING: POCKET MOVIE GUIDE A pocket guide to the Hollywood adaption of the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien's 1950s fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings, released in 2001. The book tells you everything you need to know about this popular film, from writing the script through casting and financing, to shooting and performances, to visual effects, editing and theatrical distribution. The pocket guide includes discussions of every single scene in The Fellowship of the Ring, including the Special Extended Edition (including some key individual shots). There are sections on the all of the important differences between The Lord of the Ring book and the movie adaption of The Fellowship of the Ring (including numerous details), as well a chapter exploring the additions and the omissions. Looks at behind the scenes stories, and also the critical response to the 2001 picture. There are chapters on the visual effects, on the casting and key personnel of The Fellowship of the Ring, on the studio and the financing of the production, on the music and sound, and the marketing and release of the movie in 2001 (including the home entertainment releases on DVD and video). There is also a chapter on the critical response to the movie. There is also an appendix on other adaptions of J.R.R. Tolkien's books, a detailed filmography, plus info on availability and websites. Jeremy Robinson has written many critical studies, including Steven Spielberg, Arthur Rimbaud, Jean-Luc Godard, Hayao Miyazaki, Ken Russell, Walerian Borowczyk, and The Sacred Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky, plus literary monographs on: J.R.R. Tolkien; J.M.W. Turner; Samuel Beckett; Thomas Hardy; Arthur Rimbaud; André Gide; John Cowper Powys; Robert Graves; and Lawrence Durrell. Includes bibliography, illustrations, appendices and notes. ISBN 9781861713803. 292 pages. www.crmoon.com

THE CHRISTMAS MOVIE BOOK Christmas and the world of cinema: two things that go together like mincemeat pies and mulled wine. There are few categories of film which have captured the imagination of young and old for so many years, or which have brought with them such nostalgic charm and warm sentiment. But what is it about the Christmas movie that has proven to be so creatively adaptive over the years, and why has the genre remained so perennially popular amongst audiences all across the world? This new study charts the evolution of the Christmas film, starting in 1945 with The Bells of St Mary's (Leo McCarey), and continuing up to the present day with the 3D version of A Christmas Carol (Robert Zemeckis, 2009). From the silver screen magic of It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street to the madcap seasonal comedy of Home Alone and Elf, by way of White Christmas and Black Christmas, this book considers a wide selection of some of the most enduring festive movies from the past seven decades. With a detailed exploration of each film's themes and cultural influences, The Christmas Movie Book also features a comprehensive timeline of key works in the genre, a filmography, notes, and illustrations, and examines why it is that these well-loved classics continue to enrapture generations of movie-goers. Thomas Christie has a life-long fascination with films and the people who make them. Currently reading for a PhD in Scottish Literature, he lives in Scotland with his family. He holds a first-class Honours degree in Literature and a Masters degree in Humanities, specialising with distinction in British Cinema History, from the Open University in Milton Keynes, England. Tom is the author of Liv Tyler, Star in Ascendance: Her First Decade in Film (2007), The Cinema of Richard Linklater (2008), John Hughes and Eighties Cinema (2009) and Ferris Bueller's Day Off: Pocket Movie Guide (2010), all of which are also published by Crescent Moon Publishing.For more details about Tom and his work, visit his website at: www.tomchristiebooks.co.uk. Also www.crmoon.com. 'Thomas Christie's scholarship is as always immaculate. Full marks to him for another informative, well written and erudite guide to a neglected director and episode of film history.'(Review of John Hughes and Eighties Cinema)Douglas J. Allen (Lecturer in Social Sciences, Motherwell College) 384 pages. Fully illustrated. With filmography, timeline, bibliography and notes.

PETER REDGROVE: HERE COMES THE FLOOD A Study of His Poetry by Jeremy Mark Robinson Poems of honey, wasps and bees; orchards and apples; rivers, seas and tides; storms, rain, weather and clouds; waterworks; labyrinths; amazing perfumes; wet shirts and 'wonder-awakening dresses'; the Cornish landscape (Penzance, Perranporth, Falmouth, Boscastle, the Lizard and Scilly Isles); the sixth sense and 'extra-sensuous perception'; witchcraft; alchemical vessels and laboratories; yoga; menstruation; mines, minerals and stones; sand dunes; mud-baths; mythology; dreaming; vulvas; and lots of sex magic. This book looks at poetry (and prose) from every stage of Peter Redgrove's career, and every book. It includes pieces that have only appeared in small presses and magazines, and in uncollected form. This new edition has been rewritten completely and includes a new introduction and bibliography. Illustrated. British Poets Series. EXTRACT FROM CHAPTER ONE, ON POETRY AND LIFE ...this 'strangeness' is 'strange' because reality is so fucking extraordinary, and strange too because most of us try to live without strangeness, and construct something called the 'ordinary' which never existed. Actually, the strangeness is so ordinary as to be quite natural. The strangeness is wonder and what is wondered at is so wonderful that it is strange we do not wonder more. Peter Redgrove, letter to the author (March 5, 1993) Peter Redgrove's poetic code is to create poems which describe or actualize this strangeness of living. The strangeness is here, all around us, he says, but we become immune to it. The poet's task is therefore to refresh body and soul, so that the incredible beauty and strangeness of life is once again experienced. The emphasis is on direct experience, not on abstraction or distance. Redgrove hates the synthetic and artificial. Redgrove's poetic ethic is one of direct touches - the Blakean (and Coleridgean) direct contact stemming from the cleansing of the senses. Peter Redgrove wrote to Jeremy Robinson about this book: Your essay has an infectious enthusiasm, which I'm grateful for, and I especially like the places where you actually grapple with the language of my poems, which is like writing them again. It is a very good piece, which carries the reader with it... Your own approach is irreplaceable because it seems to me founded on your own individuality and personal experience of my poems - which is vastly gratifying... in the majority it is vastly stimulating and insightful. Always, I am grateful to you for your trouble, and your deep response to what I have written.