TELL ME LIES is a rampaging last collection by the late and much lamented Shadow Poet Laureate. The title-poem is a 21st-century remix of his celebrated anti-war poem, "To Whom It May Concern (Tell me lies about Vietnam)", first performed at the anti-Vietnam War protest in Trafalgar Square in 1964. Much and nothing has changed since then, and Mitchell's new (now sadly final) poems are just as powerfully relevant 40 years on. Completed just before his death, the book is quintessential Adrian Mitchell...with visions of war and peace, celebrations and elegies, daft adventures, and exuberant outbursts - like his version of Beowulf told from the point of view of Grendel the Swamp Monster. His poetry's simplicity, clarity, passion and humour show Adrian Mitchell's allegiance to a vital, popular tradition embracing William Blake as well as the ballads and the blues. His most nakedly political poems - about war, Vietnam, prisons and racism - became part of the folklore of the Left, sung and recited at demonstrations and mass rallies. His childlike questioning was a constant reminder from the 60s onwards that poetry is first and foremost an assertion of the human spirit. A pacifist prophet who remained true to his heartfelt beliefs, Mitchell reported back for half a century from a world blighted by war, compromise, double-talk and pragmatism without losing his innocence, integrity and impish sense of humor. Angela Carter described him as a 'joyous, acrid and demotic tumbling lyricist Pied Piper determinedly singing us away from catastrophe'.
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Adrian Mitchell is no more naïve than Stevie Smith, but like her he has the innocence of his own experience. … real inner freedom and the courage of his own music. Among all the voices of the Court, a voice as welcome as Lear's fool….Humour that can stick deep and stay funny. --Ted Hughes
Nobody else writes like him. And it is becoming more and more evident that his achievement endures….Nobody has ever departed with such language for such a destination…..Mitchell is a joker, a lyrics writer, a word-spinner, an epigrammist, a man of passion and imagination….Against the present British state he opposes a kind of revolutionary populism, bawdiness, wit and the tenderness sometimes to be found between animals. --John Berger
This is Adrian Mitchell, the British Mayakovsky. --Kenneth Tynan
Nobody else writes like him. And it is becoming more and more evident that his achievement endures….Nobody has ever departed with such language for such a destination…..Mitchell is a joker, a lyrics writer, a word-spinner, an epigrammist, a man of passion and imagination….Against the present British state he opposes a kind of revolutionary populism, bawdiness, wit and the tenderness sometimes to be found between animals. --John Berger
This is Adrian Mitchell, the British Mayakovsky. --Kenneth Tynan
Nobody else writes like him. And it is becoming more and more evident that his achievement endures….Nobody has ever departed with such language for such a destination…..Mitchell is a joker, a lyrics writer, a word-spinner, an epigrammist, a man of passion and imagination….Against the present British state he opposes a kind of revolutionary populism, bawdiness, wit and the tenderness sometimes to be found between animals. --John Berger
This is Adrian Mitchell, the British Mayakovsky. --Kenneth Tynan
Nobody else writes like him. And it is becoming more and more evident that his achievement endures….Nobody has ever departed with such language for such a destination…..Mitchell is a joker, a lyrics writer, a word-spinner, an epigrammist, a man of passion and imagination….Against the present British state he opposes a kind of revolutionary populism, bawdiness, wit and the tenderness sometimes to be found between animals. --John Berger
This is Adrian Mitchell, the British Mayakovsky. --Kenneth Tynan
Nobody else writes like him. And it is becoming more and more evident that his achievement endures….Nobody has ever departed with such language for such a destination…..Mitchell is a joker, a lyrics writer, a word-spinner, an epigrammist, a man of passion and imagination….Against the present British state he opposes a kind of revolutionary populism, bawdiness, wit and the tenderness sometimes to be found between animals. --John Berger
This is Adrian Mitchell, the British Mayakovsky. --Kenneth Tynan
Nobody else writes like him. And it is becoming more and more evident that his achievement endures….Nobody has ever departed with such language for such a destination…..Mitchell is a joker, a lyrics writer, a word-spinner, an epigrammist, a man of passion and imagination….Against the present British state he opposes a kind of revolutionary populism, bawdiness, wit and the tenderness sometimes to be found between animals. --John Berger
This is Adrian Mitchell, the British Mayakovsky. --Kenneth Tynan
About the Author
Adrian Mitchell (1932-2008) was a prolific poet, playwright and children's writer. His poetry's simplicity, clarity, passion and humour show his allegiance to a vital, popular tradition embracing William Blake as well as the Border Ballads and the blues. His most nakedly political poems - about nuclear war, Vietnam, prisons and racism - became part of the folklore of the Left, sung and recited at demonstrations and mass rallies. After Allison & Busby stopped publishing poetry, he brought his work to Bloodaxe. Adrian Mitchell's Greatest Hits: His 40 Golden Greats (1991) was followed by four books covering 50 years of his work: Heart on the Left: Poems 1953-1984 (1997), Blue Coffee: Poems 1985-1996 (1996), All Shook Up: Poems 1997-2000 (2000) and The Shadow Knows: Poems 2000-2004 (2004). Tell Me Lies: Poems 2005-2008 follows from Bloodaxe in 2009. His collected poems for children, Umpteen Poems (Orchard Books), and Shapeshifters, his versions of Ovid's Metamorphoses, illustrated by Alan Lee (Frances Lincoln), are both published in 2009. Born in London in 1932, Adrian Mitchell worked as a journalist from 1955 to 1966, when he became a full-time writer. He gave many hundreds of readings throughout the world in theatres, colleges, pubs, prisons, streets, public transport, cellars, clubs and schools of all kinds. Many of his plays and stage adaptations were performed at the National Theatre as well as by the Royal Shakespeare Company and other theatre companies. In 2002, the socialist magazine Red Pepper dubbed him Shadow Poet Laureate and asked him to write regular republican poems for their columns. In a National Poetry Day poll in 2005, his poem 'Human Beings' was voted the poem that most people would like to see launched into space. Adrian died in December 2008.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Adrian Mitchell was known to me mainly for his Clint Eastwood approved :"He breathed in air, he breathed out light, Charlie Parker was my delight" .I have to say that I was delighted with this selection , as it has the qualities mentioned in the title of this review. Among the most memorable, both personal ( A M was a man who prized friendships) and political ( a couple of blistering verses on the Royal family)- a man worthy of the tributes from the public and from his fellow poets ( such as Ted Hughes)
By john fox
Format:Paperback
Another rumbustious pile of poems from the irrepressible Adrian Mitchell. Piercing, funny, angry, compassionate. Irrepressible certainly and irreplaceable too. So sad its his last collection. This one is counterpointed with wild and appropriately excessive illustrations from the equally unpredictable Ralph Steadman. Altogether a good savage unforgettable bonanza. At an amazing price too.
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