By R.W. Morrell
Radical And Red Poets And Poetry. Compiled and annotated by Edmund and Ruth Frow. Salford, The Working Class Movement Library, 1994. Unpriced.
Ever since a teacher with a fanaticism for poetry forced the subject down my throat at school I have detested the subject. I own thousands of books but until this arrived for review not one could be described as poetry.
But this book is different. Here are the thoughts, aspirations and hopes of ordinary people; their pleasures and their sadness. It is not my attention to review the poetry, this has been around for many years and Thomas Paine has been commented upon by many others, rather it is to commend this book to Thomas Paine members who will find much in it of Paine interest, as many of the authors Society whose poems are reproduced were Paineites. In fact Paine himself was a poet, and some of his work is reproduced in Radical and Red Poets and Poetry, however, I have to admit that his efforts at being a poet leave much to be desired.
Edmund and Ruth Frow are to be highly commended for bringing together this book. They supplement the poems with an extensive and valuable series of short essays, paragraphs may be a better description of many, as well as provide a good selection of illustrations, one showing TPS President, Michael Foot, beside Paine’s statue in Thetford. This is a superb book which I have no hesitation in urging all readers to purchase.