John's much anticipated next collection

Sailor Boy

is now available,  published by The Collective in May 2006 and 

Jeremy Hooker, Anglo-Welsh Review.     Whether writing from the child’s-eye view or the man’s, John Latham emerges from this sad, funny, tender book as a poet who sees truths from a strikingly original angle of vision.

Peter Porter, Observer.     His verse is almost all passionate recall of childhood and marriage, a poetry of sensitivity such as so many novels offer. The detail is exact, the spirit of the past conjured through the words most feelingly.

John Greening, Poetry Review.     The poetic effects are subtle ….. yet he is able to make the tiniest details sing. Unsentimental, plain, but rhythmically invigorating …..

Ian McMillan, Iron.     Spectacular writing, with lines that hang around in the mind long after you’ve read them.

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For availability and prices please check out The Collective's book shop page.

Sailor Boy  

by John Latham

The Collective Press  ISBN  1  899449  16  7  

There seems little doubt that these poems are written out of experienced circumstances. They are inhabited by a tremendous energy; they are perspicacious – sharp and crisp - and seem to serve as a testament to the journey from the utter upheaval of loss through to the  hard acceptance of the death as fact.  Despite the omnipresence of death in this collection, there is a spunky energy and dark humour -  a vitality – about the work, that saves it from being maudlin. Life is ‘taken on’ by this author with alacrity, as self and world are scrutinized, with a sword taken to complacency and the self emptied out and explored through a variety of personae    Fiona Owen