`Human Rites' presents a varied selection of poems by E.A. Markham, whose work has gained many admirers both in Britain and abroad in recent years. By bringing together poems from several small-press publications and including recent and uncollected material, `Human Rites' illustrates all aspects of his considerable range. Markham's imagination is allied to a strong sense of reality, and imbued with a deep sense of comedy. His work encompasses explorations of his West Indian background, love poems, poems on historical, social and political themes, and his special brand of ironic humour in the `Lambchops' poems which are as effective on the page as they are in performance at poetry readings. He is, as Gavin Ewart wrote of `Love, Politics & Food' (1982), `a writer of great intelligence and vitality' who `can command a very powerful wry political comment.'
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