The Biplane Houses

Description

This is Les Murray's first new volume of poems since 2002's Poems the Size of Photographs. In it we find Murray at his near-miraculous best. The collection exhibits both Murray's unfailing grace as a writer and his ability to write in any voice, style and genre- there are story poems, word-plays, history - and myth-makings, aphoristic fragments and domestic portraits. The subjects of these poems range from Asperger's Syndrome to Germaine Greer to Japanese sword blades. As ever, Murray's evocation of the natural world is unparalleled in its inventiveness and virtuosity.

Les Murray is Australia's leading poet. He lives in Bunyah, near Taree in New South Wales. He has published some thirty books. His work is studied in schools and universities around Australia and has been translated into about half a dozen foreign languages. In 1996 he was awarded the T.S. Eliot Prize for poetry, in 1998 the Queen's Gold Medal for poetry, and in 2004 the Mondello Prize. His most recent collection, The Biplane Houses, was published by Black Inc. in April 2006.