The Claims Office is the debut collection from one of the rising young stars of British poetry. Dai George’s work is characterised by a mix of rebellious energy and unflinching satire: ‘nature’ poems that are often anti-nature; lively pieces about the metropolises of London and New York; skewed love poems like ‘Plans with the Unmet Wife’.
Poems about his native Wales alternate between the elegiac and the edgy, displaying a suspicion of authority and a reluctance to conform to nationalist cliché that places him in the lineage of poets like RS Thomas, Robert Minhinnick, Duncan Bush, John Ormond and Mike Jenkins.
“Lavish, well-executed... lyrics that seek to communicate directly with the reader.”
– Jane Holland, Poetry Society
Dai George was born in Cardiff in 1986 and has studied in Bristol and New York. He has had poems and critical articles published on Guardian Online, and in Poetry Wales, New Welsh Review and others. His poetry has appeared in several anthologies, including the Salt Book of Younger Poets (2011; ISBN 9781907773105) and Best British Poetry (Salt, 2013; ISBN 9781907773556). Often returning to his native Wales, he now lives and teaches in London.