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80 at 80

Paul Durcan author Colm Tóibín editor Niall MacMonagle editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Vintage Publishing

Published:12th Sep '24

Should be back in stock very soon

80 at 80 cover

A new selection of Paul Durcan's finest poems, published in celebration of his 80th birthday

'He has written immortal poems. I revere him' Michael Longley


For fifty years the poet Paul Durcan has explored and questioned a world both real and imagined.

Steeped in the goings-on of Ireland and preoccupied with its concerns, he has delighted, enriched and unsettled his readers. His prodigious output of more than twenty collections bursts with poems that are courageously personal and passionately spiritual – a body of work that contains multitudes.

‘The great enemy of art is the ego’ says Durcan. ‘It keeps getting in the way. One needs the ego to disappear so that I become you; I become the people walking up and down the street.’

First published in 1967, Durcan remains the most of companionable of poets. His vivacity and ability to surprise has never been clearer than in this new selection of eighty of his finest poems, published in celebration of his 80th birthday.

EDITED BY NIALL MACMONAGLE

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY COLM TOIBIN

His is a once-in-a-generation talent. He has written immortal poems. I revere him. -- Michael Longley
To have heard him read adds another pleasure to the reading of his work – but the voice speaks clearly on the page in poems of harrowing intimacy, politics and love -- Carol Ann Duffy
Durcan is a God. He can break your heart in supermarket or petrol station. He is unafraid, masterful and exactly what this world needs more of: wild abandon, wild love and sheer mad genius -- Alice Sebold
The world is all the richer for this man's verse * Irish Independent *

ISBN: 9781787304840

Dimensions: 223mm x 140mm x 21mm

Weight: 335g

224 pages