Waterloo Press - Jeremy Reed - Writer of Book "West End Survival Kit" and Book "Black Russian

Jeremy Reed

Jeremy Reed was born in Jersey in the Channel Islands. His prolific literary output since his first poetry collection Target (Andium Press, 1974) has been matched by an equally titanic reputation as the most imaginatively gifted British poet of his generation. His many admirers include Seamus Heaney, David Lodge and JG Ballard. The collection Bleecker Street (Carcanet, 1980) sealed Reed’s burgeoning distinction as a truly original voice, and Eric Gregory and Somerset Maugham Awards followed suit. His Selected Poems were published by Penguin in 1987. Reed is also the author of legion pop biographies, poetry translations and novels, his most recent being The Grid (Peter Owen Ltd, 2008). Following the success of the dystopian collection West End Survival Kit, a poem from which, ‘Blake’, was given a special commendation in the 2009 Forward Prize, Waterloo Press is proud to present for the first time this fugitive Reed volume, which collects together poems previously unpublished from a crucial time in Reed’s formative development as the highly imaginative poet we know today.

Black Russian - Out-Takes from the Airmen's Club 1978-9 (2011) ISBN: 978-1-906742-22-5 £10.00 After twenty-five years of reading Reed, with greater or lesser amazement, I realised on reading these recovered typescripts that here was his masterpiece: the mighty ‘Junky Tango Outside Boots Piccadilly’. Such a sense of purpose and such delicacy in revealing a world of feeling were never before combined. This work has been hidden from its origin in 1978 until now. The history of this occlusion is impossible to know, hidden beneath the incessant intrigues, passions, chills, flurries, losses, austerities, excesses and compromises of the poetry world. Hidden too behind a score of other projects. These poems have rested unseen for twenty-eight years. The earth has grown sicker and hotter and their time has come. from the Introduction by Andrew Duncan
Jeremy Reed’s talent is almost extraterrestrial in its brilliance. He is Rimbaud reconfigured as the Man who fell to Earth... Imagining the future is difficult enough, but Reed has tackled an even harder task, imagining the present. ...This visionary present is Jeremy’s true domain. No other poet (and very few novelists) has so accurately conveyed the essence of what it is to be alive today and in full command of a free and active imagination. JG Ballard Reed’s poetic development, when addressed, will be fascinating. Already lauded by Kathleen Raine, David Gascoyne and Seamus Heaney, among others, Reed’s latest volumes have confirmed an extraordinary dovetailing of themes from the 1970s and 1980s with more recent work. Simon Jenner, Angel Exhaust (quoted in Conductors of Chaos) The most talented poet of his generation David Gascoigne A remarkable lyric gift David Lodge Reed’s poetry is full of rich and careful writing, dense with pleasure in the world and wakens us to its beautiful surprises Seamus Heaney ...the most prolific and consistently excellent poet currently working in Britain. Steve Spence, Stride
West End Survival Kit (2009) ISBN 978-1-906742-07-2 £10.00 He is well known as an inimitably spectacular reader and performer of his work, and collaborates currently with the musician Itchy Ear under the name of The Ginger Light. Jeremy Reed lives in London with cats, and is currently writing a successor to The Life of John Stephen King of Carnaby Street called Mod Male. Jeremy Reed's recent books include an epic poem on Elvis Presley Heartbreak Hotel (Orion 2002), a book-length poem on 1960s rock culture Orange Sunshine (SAF 2006), the collections Duck and Sally Inside (Enitharmon 2004) and This Is How You Disappear (Enitharmon 2007), a novel about Christopher Marlowe The Grid (Peter Owen 2008), and his biography of the heroin addicted novelist Anna Kavan A Stranger On Earth (Peter Owen 2006).
Jeremy Reed is British poetry’s glam, spangly, shape-shifting answer to David Bowie. The Independent Jeremy Reed is a legend. What more can you fucking ask? Pete Doherty Jeremy Reed’s talent is almost extraterrestrial in its brilliance. He is Rimbaud reconfigured as the Man who fell to Earth, a visitor from deep space powered by the most exotic fuels the imagination has ever devised. J.G. Ballard When Patti Smith meets Rimbaud at Graceland, the result is Jeremy Reed’s Heartbreak Hotel. Edmund White Reed’s poetry is full of rich and careful writing, dense with pleasure in words that pleasure the world and waken us to its lovely surprise. Seamus Heaney In its detail and ambition alone, Orange Sunshine confirms Reed’s place as a great lyric poet of pop’s shadow. Michael Bracewell This superb biography peels back the mysteries that surround one of the strangest writers of the twentieth century. J.G. Ballard on A Stranger on Earth The Life and Work of Anna Kavan. It’s raining stardust in Heartbreak Hotel. Jeremy Reed’s glitzy, over-the-top homage to Elvis is a dazzling tour de force. John Ashbery A wild, minatory, extravagantly delusional work of poetic brilliance. Will Self on The Grid Who better than Jeremy Reed to cast and direct Presley as the dead star of an epic poem that smoulders with the aspirations and ashes of the twentieth century? Geoff Dyer One of the most original virtuoso voices to be heard in our poetry of the fin de siecle. Lawrence Ferlinghetti To read extracts please click here