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    Books That Made Me Robin Robertson - The Poetry World Is Polarised. I'm in The Middle, Vaguely Appalled' 28 Sep 2918

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    Fabián Barba
    Robin Robertson discusses some of the books that have influenced him over the years in this article. Some of the key books mentioned include Mervyn Peake's Titus books that started his passion for fiction as a teenager, and the works of poets like Yeats, Hughes, and Heaney that made poetry crucial to him. He wishes he could have written great books like Ulysses or Under the Volcano without the health issues experienced by their authors. He is also influenced by the work of David Jones, both his writing and visual art. Robertson feels the world of poetry is currently polarized between simplistic or incomprehensible works, and that he sits in the middle, vaguely appalled by both.

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    Books That Made Me Robin Robertson - The Poetry World Is Polarised. I'm in The Middle, Vaguely Appalled' 28 Sep 2918

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    Fabián Barba
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    Robin Robertson discusses some of the books that have influenced him over the years in this article. Some of the key books mentioned include Mervyn Peake's Titus books that started his passion for fiction as a teenager, and the works of poets like Yeats, Hughes, and Heaney that made poetry crucial to him. He wishes he could have written great books like Ulysses or Under the Volcano without the health issues experienced by their authors. He is also influenced by the work of David Jones, both his writing and visual art. Robertson feels the world of poetry is currently polarized between simplistic or incomprehensible works, and that he sits in the middle, vaguely appalled by both.

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    Robin Robertson discusses some of the books that have influenced him over the years in this article. Some of the key books mentioned include Mervyn Peake's Titus books that started his passion for fiction as a teenager, and the works of poets like Yeats, Hughes, and Heaney that made poetry crucial to him. He wishes he could have written great books like Ulysses or Under the Volcano without the health issues experienced by their authors. He is also influenced by the work of David Jones, both his writing and visual art. Robertson feels the world of poetry is currently polarized between simplistic or incomprehensible works, and that he sits in the middle, vaguely appalled by both.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    31 views4 pages

    Books That Made Me Robin Robertson - The Poetry World Is Polarised. I'm in The Middle, Vaguely Appalled' 28 Sep 2918

    Uploaded by

    Fabián Barba
    Robin Robertson discusses some of the books that have influenced him over the years in this article. Some of the key books mentioned include Mervyn Peake's Titus books that started his passion for fiction as a teenager, and the works of poets like Yeats, Hughes, and Heaney that made poetry crucial to him. He wishes he could have written great books like Ulysses or Under the Volcano without the health issues experienced by their authors. He is also influenced by the work of David Jones, both his writing and visual art. Robertson feels the world of poetry is currently polarized between simplistic or incomprehensible works, and that he sits in the middle, vaguely appalled by both.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 4

    Books that made me

    Robin Robertson: ‘The poetry


    world is polarised. I’m in the
    middle, vaguely appalled’
    The Man Booker shortlisted writer on his love for
    Jane Bowles and biographies, and why he never
    gives books as presents
    Robin Robertson
    Fri 28 Sep 2018

    The book I’m currently reading


    As always, I have submissions to read (I work in publishing).
    When I’m allowed to read for pleasure, it’s usually non-fiction –
    or something ancient and Greek.
    The book that changed my life
    I was brought up within earshot of north-east Scottish dialect,
    folklore and music, in what remained of a fishing community
    with its oral tradition, superstitions and legends. Tending to the
    solitary, I fell naturally towards books and read
    indiscriminately. The stories I remember were Scottish folk
    tales, the Greek myths (in some hopelessly expurgated edition,
    upgraded slowly through the years) and Grimm. As a teenager
    I found Mervyn Peake’s Titus books intoxicating, and those
    novels, probably, started my passion for fiction, while Yeats and
    Hughes and Heaney were making poetry crucial to me. I’m not
    sure a book has changed my life, but all great art jolts your
    perspective and enlarges your gaze.

    The book I wish I’d written


    I suppose I’m always trying to write that book (which is the
    only way to pay attention, the only way to improve). To have
    produced books of the stature of James Joyce’s Ulysses,
    or Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry, or David Jones’s In
    Parenthesis, without the attendant physical or psychological
    damage – that would be an achievement.

    The book that influenced my writing


    The work of David Jones – not just the poetry and essays, but
    the engravings, drawings, watercolours and, particularly, the
    painted inscriptions. I hope my admiration for his writing
    doesn’t stray into mimicry.

    The world of poetry is small and currently


    polarised: it’s often either simplistic or
    incomprehensible

    The book that is most underrated


    There are great books that fail to be recognised at the time but
    are rediscovered, like John Williams’s Stoner, or novels like
    Ulverton or Death and Nightingales that offer a constant
    admonitory warning to judges of literary prizes. I wish more
    people read Jane Bowles: Two Serious Ladies and Plain
    Pleasures are wonderful.

    The last book that made me laugh


    The books that make me laugh, cry, then smash furniture tend
    to be written by people driven by self-promotion and shallow
    narcissism; they don’t have time to bother with all that pesky
    learning-the-craft business: they want “Likes” on social media
    and they’re having strong and important feelings somewhere
    near you, right now. The world of poetry is small and currently
    polarised: it’s often either simplistic or incomprehensible. I find
    myself in the middle, vaguely appalled. I’m allergic to “light
    verse”, because it seems a betrayal of the purpose of poetry.
    Equally, poetry that sets out to be deliberately opaque is
    betraying the purpose of language.

    The book I couldn’t finish


    I spend my life not finishing books – though they’re mostly
    manuscripts rather than books.

    The book I’m ashamed not to have read


    Being Scottish, I carry enough shame already without needing
    the help of books.

    My earliest reading memory


    I remember sitting in the congregation of King’s College chapel
    in Aberdeen, transfixed by my father’s sermon. I was never a
    believer, but the power and beauty of his delivery was thrilling.
    It was the cadences rather than the creed that moved me, and
    I understood then how language could be made to sing.

    The book I give as a gift


    I almost never give books as presents: it feels rather
    presumptuous, or something ...

    My comfort read
    I feel I’m drifting towards a fondness for biographies, where
    one can find comfort in seeing people make a mess of their
    lives and the lives of others and still produce art that is
    beautiful and lasting.

    •  Robin Robertson’s The Long Take (Picador) has been


    shortlisted for the Man Booker prize.

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