Flambard is a small independent press that nourishes developing talent, particularly new and neglected writers. Poetry forms the backbone of the list, but Flambard now publishes some fiction as well.
Michael Standen, 1937-2008
Remembering Michael Standen, who died on 1 June, 2008, aged 70
The Flying Pen
As from a vasty height the descending sun's
Choice is seen in some ordinary windowpane
By airline passengers, bright as a star on earth,
So...If we could write as in those days when
Ten thousand metres high in imagination
Was cruising height...Armed to the teeth
With inhibition, camouflaged with doubt,
We nip under the radar of criticism,
Hug low ground, know heroic metaphor
Has died of oxygen starvation.
This poem, taken from Mick's first collection, Time's Fly-Past, reminds us of the very character of this remarkable man. Flambard published this book in 1991; our first book. Five fine novels, published by Heinemann and OUP, had preceded this. Later, in 1994, we published his collection of short stories, Months. Mick's empire, he used to say when he was WEA District Secretary, stretched from sea to sea. As teacher, writer, encourager and scourge of pompous bureaucracies, Mick will be remembered with love and affection by many, many people; from sea to sea, and well beyond.
There have been many tributes paid to Mick; some of these are listed on our news page.
Arnold Wesker, the poet
“Arnold's Wesker's reputation has survived the vicissitudes of fashion, and it is now easier to see the lasting strengths and variety of his work.”
— Margaret Drabble
Arnold Wesker, who was knighted in the 2006 New Year’s Honours list for services to drama, is a major British playwright. Born in London in 1932, he achieved early critical success with the three plays known as The Wesker Trilogy (1958–60). Since then he has written about forty more plays, as well as opera librettos and scripts for film, TV and radio. Although he has written poetry for many years, All Things Tire of Themselves is his first collection, published in April.
Dusk Music
Rob Chapman has been a regular contributor to Mojo, Uncut and The Times, as well as a broadcaster with the BBC. He is the author of Album Covers from the Vinyl Junkyard and Selling the Sixties, which was included in the Guardian’s top ten music books of the year in 1992. Now he has written Dusk Music, an entertaining and darkly comic account of a pop musician’s career across several decades and published by Flambard in April.
When teenage guitar prodigy Keith Gear shares a stage with Jimi Hendrix in mid 60s Soho he forms a bond with his hero and embarks on a journey that will take him a long way from his South London roots. Reluctantly thrust into the spotlight with his band Dominion, he plays the fame game briefly and finds it wanting.
With Jimi he enjoys acid trips in London, jam sessions in New York and reflective evenings in Morocco. In the decades that follow he experiences cult fame as a solo artist and sees a close friend become an unlikely star on the alternative comedy scene. By the 1990s a psychopathic celebrity killer is on the loose and the ageing and battle-worn Gear is largely forgotten. In the midst of all this a chance encounter at the Avalonia festival opens up unexpected pathways for Gear’s future.
“Chapman's success lies in ensuring the minutiae of Gear's life, both professional and personal, are meticulously presented. He instils discographies, live events, music rags, radio stations and fellow musicians with a life and enthusiasm that helps plot a convincing course alongside a skewed reality anchored by some of music's biggest names.”
* * * Ross Bennett, Mojo June 2008
Recollections
This book is a celebration in poetry and photography of the work and collections of the Museum of Antiquities at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, for the past forty years the main museum for Hadrian’s Wall. It has an internationally famous collection of Roman antiquities. In 2009 the collection will be transferred to the new Great North Museum.
This volume, published by Flambard in April, brings together the poetry of the museum’s poet-in-residence, Maureen Almond, and the photographs of the museum’s Audio-Visual Officer, Glyn Goodrick and explores the interconnections between the Romans and the modern museum visitor. Its elegant and stylish design make it an ideal souvenir of the museum and its collections.
The Fast Heat of Beauty
The poems have the strange ability to create a kind of ring round experience, where we see the poet concentrating, delighting in what she is seeing and feeling and thinking, a part of her subject but separate and discerning. It's very appealing, mainly because it creates a mood of urgency which guarantees that she holds our attention.
— Andrew Motion
Anna McKerrow’s passionate, emotional and frequently tongue-in-cheek poems explore such themes as love, loss, pain, healing, spirituality and the mysteries of the everyday, from the daily commute to consumerism. In her original and distinctive work, she explores the dynamics of relationships, as well as feminism and old and new mythologies. Her lyricism and humour reveal a refreshing and thought-provoking new voice in modern poetry.
The Fast Heat of Beauty is her debut collection and was published by Flambard in April.
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