You are warmly invited to the London launch of a stimulating new anthology of poems: Contraflow: Lines of Englishness 1922-2022, published by Renard Press in Islington.

The readers will include Moniza Alvi, David Clarke, Julia Copus (reading Mew), Peter Daniels, Rishi Dastidar, Steve Ely, Stuart Henson, Holly Hopkins, Mimi Khalvati, Gregory Leadbetter, Katrina Naomi, Ruth Padel, John Siddique, Rob Selby, Elisabeth Sennitt Clough, George Szirtes, Rory Waterman and the editors, Kevin Gardner and John Greening.

What can be said about Englishness – what is it, how does it work, how can we measure it?

In his foreword to Contraflow Ian McMillan writes “For some people Englishness is a kind of religion, for others it’s a state of mind that makes them a little uncomfortable, and this book examines both those worlds.”

The editors, John Greening and Kevin Gardner – one English, the other American – have compiled an anthology in which two poetic currents flow against each other, so that different decades merge and well-known stanzas brush shoulders with more neglected verse. The result is an extraordinary variety of marvellous poetic responses to English history, culture and landscape, in a range of voices that include the satirical, visionary, lyrical, comic, political and meditative.

This event is free and you do not need a ticket