LATITUDE FESTIVAL
Thursday 16th - Sunday 19th July
HENHAM PARK, SOUTHWOLD,
SUNRISE COAST, SUFFOLK
Brian Patten
Poetry Arena
Friday 17th July, 2009Brian Patten made his name in the 1960s as one of the Liverpool Poets, alongside Adrian Henri and Roger McGough. Poetry that’s immediate and accessible; their joint anthology, ‘The Mersey Sound’ (1967), is often credited as the most significant anthology of the twentieth century for its success in bringing poetry to new audiences.
Patten's ability to write and perform a powerful mix of serious and humorous work has made him one the country’s leading poets; his work includes ‘Vanishing Trick’ (1976) and ‘Love Poems’ (1981), which deal with the trials and tribulations of love; ‘Storm Damage’ (1988); and ‘Armada’ (1996), which include some of his most striking poems, focusing on the death of his mother and his memories of childhood. Patten’s ‘Selected Poems’ and ‘The Collected Love Poems’ were published in 2007 garnering the following quote from The Times “A magic ability to turn radiant imagination loose.”
