Bridge Bluster

An 80-page volume, 18 x 11cm, printed on high quality card and paper, thread-

bound, illustrated with amateur drawings by the author; designed, produced (apart

from printing and binding) and published by the author in 2002.

The book consists of a collection of poems observing and describing the

appearance, character and context – weather conditions, human activity – of the

eighteen road bridges over the tidal River Thames in London, from Tower Bridge in

the east to Richmond in the west. There are three sequences of all eighteen bridges,

each sequence written at a different time, between the mid-1980s and the late

1990s.

Composed in generally lucid and conventional language, the forms vary in length

and in style, from classical scan and rhyme to free verse The tone also varies, from

comical and carefree to sober and intricate.

The title Bridge Bluster was influenced by that of the preceding book Brighton

Burble (and succeeded by the publication of Beech Blurt). A prose preface

evocatively explains the autobiographical background to the poet’s idea for the book.