SAXON BOOKS  - OUR STORY

The need for a new kind of war poetry anthology
As a teacher over twenty five years ago I found that collections of poetry of the First World War were rarely more than a bare collection of poems almost exclusively by men, and completely without any background information about the poets, the particular circumstances in which poems were written, little or nothing about the nature of the war.

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Finding what was needed
I started researching the poems and poets and looking for poems in newspapers and magazines of the period which showed varying attitudes to the war. I also found poems by women who were caught up in the war as nurses, or ammunition workers or mothers or wives. I think my anthologies give a more balanced insight into the war and its poetry.

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MINDS AT WAR and OUT IN THE DARK set a new standard for war poetry anthologies by providing relevant, first hand written comments from the lives and experiences of poets and their contemporaries.  They remain two of the best anthologies of poetry of the First World War.

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The leading war poetry website
The website I created in 1999 was at the top of Google searches for "war poetry" for many years and remains highly ranked with up to a million visitors a year. It was planned to present information about the war, its poets and my anthologies. The website was warpoetry.co.uk and has been replaced by the updated warpoetry.uk 

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Contemporary war poetry from the battlefronts (from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan)
Many contemporary serving soldiers, sailors and airmen sent me their poems and many of these were presented on the website.

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Remembrance Poems
"Remembrance Poems" was  a major interest of visitors to the website and an extensive range of poetry is presented there. I produced the book of remembrance poems and readings in response to this interest.

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Poetry of the Kosovo and Falklands War
The wars in Kosovo (1999) and the Falklands (1982) were other interests, both with aftermaths for communities and combatants which are little appreciated by UK citizens.

 

French poetry of the First World War
More recently the translator, Ian Higgins, introduced me and other English readers to the impressive poetry of the First World War written by French soldiers and civilians.

David Roberts     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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