"I had my wise-cracks all lined up and ready to go when I noticed the list contained at least three poets I know and like a lot (Gillis, Yeh, Hadfield), at which point I suspected I’d got too old to sustain my previous levels of indignation over these little jamborees. Others on the list are less good than those I’ve just mentioned, and I think Batchelor, Levison, Gamble, Sam Riviere and Oli Hazzard would have adorned any list. Really though, I was hoping someone could have seen my first two books as false starts and let me in on the basis of a collection published in 2006. If anyone’s in the mood for a Past-It Generation Promotion of poets who spend ages thumbing cluelessly through their books for the poem they want to read and would rather slip away to watch Newsnight after the reading than go down the pub, you know where to find me."
David Wheatley reacts to the Poetry Book Society list of Next Generation poets.
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