Poems From The Eighties

Poems From the Eighties is an introduction to the early work of Exeter poet and novelist Andy Botterill.  All the poems were written in the 1980s when the poet was in his late teens and early twenties and an undergraduate of Swansea University, before training and later working as a local news reporter in Devon. The poems are taken from the full collections Earth Rites, 1984, New England in the Fall and Chasing the Dragon, both from 1985, and If You Could See Me Now, from 1987.  Also included are the short pamphlets Fanfare for the Unemployed Man and All Your Good Intentions, both from 1988, and Coming to Terms, 1989.
The poems have a confessional, stream of consciousness style in the American Beat tradition and have themes of love, loss, longing, conflict, self-discovery, recent history and social commentary.  All the poems have been updated with revisions and additions for this new collection, which completes the gradual reissue of Andy Botterill's published poetry in eight volumes on APS Books.  Many of the poems appeared in their original format in independent poetry magazines and journals both in the UK and abroad at the time of writing.