Honest, confiding and intelligent, these poems are rich in material and character: from callous medical students and pompous surgeons to scenes of war and post-war tragedy, compassionately observed. Fly-fishing, botany and archaeology sit alongside travel pieces and poems about Currie’s Scottish heritage, while central to the book are tender but unsentimental poems coming to terms with the loss of the poet’s wife.
“Formally adroit and movingly lyrical, here is a poet with an eye and ear alive to what is hidden or unspoken, to life’s often sinister subtext.” – Anna Crowe
“Read him for accessibility, for wit, for the elegance of his imagery... this poetry is deeply mined, and comes clear and burnished to the surface.” – Adrian Buckner
Simon Currie was born in Leeds in 1938. A consultant neurologist by trade, he gained a PhD at Sheffield Hallam University. He is a member of the Beehive Poets, Bradford, and of the Pennine Poets. The Isle of Lewis Chessman is his first full collection and follows his highly successful pamphlet, Imagine a Forest, published by Smith Doorstop (2010; ISBN 9781906613266). He lives in Lower Wharfedale.