Notebook in Hand is a selection from John Rety's five collections as well as unpublished and new poems – he was still writing up until his untimely death in February 2010. His poetry is both simple and complex – tender, funny, poignant, and companionable, it is also edgy, acerbic, troubled and disappointed. As well as his better-known comic poetry, Notebook in Hand presents tender lyrics and trenchant political meditations, some of which may surprise, but will certainly delight, his readers.
‘His poetry always exhibits a lightness, even when dealing with dark gravities, and a clarity where he never lost touch with the serious business of living.’ – Stephen Watts