Roger Robinson

Selected Poems gathers together a lifetime's work by beloved, prize-winning poet and musician, Roger Robinson, reflecting on the joys and pains of life 'His poems are deep, mature, moving and inventive' BERNARDINE EVARISTO'Robinson is one of the most important poetic voices in the UK right now' RAYMOND ANTROBUS 'Roger Robinson shows us that he can be the voice of our communal consciousness' AFUA HIRSCH From his beginnings a London-based spoken-word poet in the 1990s to winning the T. S. Eliot prize in 2019 and the Ondaatje Prize in 2020, Roger Robinson's name has been synonymous with poetry of profound depth and empathy which explores the breadth of human experience. Selected Poems gathers together over twenty years of powerful work which has inspired generations of Black writers. Whether demonstrating the intimacy of a father braiding his daughter's hair, celebrating the joy of community at a house party or reflecting on the premature birth of his son in 'Grace', Robinson's work is characterised by musicality, soul, technical precision and subtlety unlike any other poet.

The Birmingham-born, Turner Prize-nominated artist Hurvin Anderson is best known for his brightly painted, densely detailed landscapes and interior scenes, which are drawn from his own photographs, sketches and personal recollections particularly those relating to his upbringing in the Afro-Caribbean community in the Midlands, as well as more recent trips to the Caribbean. Anderson s luscious paintings have hybridity at their heart. A tug-of-war plays out between abstraction and figuration, nature versus the manmade, beauty and menace, and his British and Jamaican heritage. Born in the United Kingdom as a member of the Jamaican diaspora, Anderson relates to the Caribbean as both insider and outsider, aware of the mythmaking that the idea of lost or future paradise generates. Anderson, the youngest of eight children, grew up listening to his family reminisce about their lives in the Caribbean before they moved to England in the 1960s, an emotional through-line to his work, suggesting the longing and loss that keeps certain geographies alive in us. This book, Anderson s first major monograph, has been carefully curated by the artists himself and includes paintings, sketches, source material and ephemera, studio shots, and a series of black-and-white drawings created exclusively for this publication. The volume also features an in-depth and deeply considered essay by art historian Catherine Lampert, a text by poet and writer Roger Robinson, and an illustrated chronology.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS ‘Beautiful, haunting, thought-provoking … A book I will return to again and again’ Bernardine Evaristo A gorgeously produced, hugely original examination of Black Britishness in the 21st century What is Black Britain? In 2021, award-winning poet Roger Robinson and acclaimed photographer Johny Pitts rented a red Mini Cooper and decided to follow the coast clockwise in search of an answer to this question. Leaving London, they followed the River Thames east towards Tilbury, where the Empire Windrush docked in 1948. Too often, that is where the history told about Black Britain begins and ends – but Robinson and Pitts continued out of London, following the coast clockwise through Margate to Land’s End, Bristol to Blackpool, Glasgow to John O’Groats and Scarborough to Southend on Sea. Here, the authors found not only Black British culture long overlooked in official narratives of Britain, but also the history of Empire and transatlantic slavery to which every Briton is tethered. Home Is Not a Place is the spectacular result of the journey they documented: a free-form composition of photography, poetry and essays that offers a book-length reflection upon Black Britishness – its complexity, strength and resilience – at the start of a new decade. ‘Masterful … A thing of brilliance’ Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of Open Water

Every runner's story is part of a great tradition of running stories. Running Throughout Time tells the best and most important of them. From Atalanta, the heroic woman runner of ancient Greece-when goddesses advised on race tactics-to the new legends of Billy Mills, Joan Benoit Samuelson, and Allison Roe (the modern Atalanta), this book brings the greatest runners back to life. It's the perfect runner's bedside storybook. Colorful, dramatic, alive with human insight and period detail, these stories are also full of new discoveries. Within these pages, readers will find the true story of Pheidippides and the Battle of Marathon; they will read text from the world's first newspaper report of a footrace (1719). The book uncovers important evidence of the first road races, the origins of cross-country running, and the earliest marathons, telling the true story of the origins of the marathon and just why racers must run exactly 26 miles, 385 yards (42.2 km). Further, it tells more modern stories, like those of women's marathon activist, Kathrine Switzer. Roger Robinson is a vivid storyteller and a lifelong elite runner who knows the sport deeply and passionately, yet he is also a meticulous scholar who digs and digs until he gets the story right. He shares his findings here, such as those from his investigation of the tragedy during the 1928 Olympics when most of the women running the 800 meters collapsed in distress. Roger has been everywhere in running: elite runner, masters champion, stadium announcer, TV commentator, researcher, and journalist. The stories in this book are selected because each is significant in the greater story of running and because Roger can bring something new and exciting to their telling. From variant translations of ancient poems, dusty stacks of old newspapers, crackly handwritten notebooks, and carefully studied film footage, Roger has done every kind of homework to get these unforgettable stories right. All runners should read this book to really know whose footsteps they run in and why running is worthy of the effort they give to it.

I Ett bärbart paradis, sin kritikerrosade och prisbelönta fjärde diktsamlingen, undersöker Roger Robinson den utopiska idén om ett paradis. Vikten som begreppet har för sitt hemland, Storbritannien, och vad det betydde i relation till sin förtidigt födda son. Han skriver om paradiset som nekades människorna i Grenfell Tower. Som genom årtiondena nekats Windrush-generationen som tog sig från de karibiska kolonierna till Storbritannien. Och för dem som är fast i det moderna slaveriet. Ett bärbart paradis handlar om att återupprätta det värde som genom århundradena berövats den svarta kroppen. Den är bönen för de som förlorats och de som blivit kvar. Bönen för att läka de trauman som ständigt repeteras i vår tid.

Roger Robinson’s range is wide: the joys and pains of family life; observations on the threatening edge of violence below the surface energies of Black British territories in London; memories of an older Trinidad and visits that tell him both how he and the country have changed; emblematic poems on the beauty and often bizarre strangeness of the world of animals; quizzical responses to the strange, the heartening, and the appalling in incidents encountered in daily life; reflections on the purposes and costs of making art, as in fine poems on a George Stubbs’ painting, cocaine and Coltrane’s Ascension, and questioning thoughts on the ideologies of Toni Morrison and John Milton. The poems express a fierce anger against injustice, but also convey the irrepressible sense that Roger Robinson cannot help but love people for their humour, oddity and generosity of spirit.'With A Portable Paradise, Roger Robinson shows us that he can be the voice of our communal consciousness, while at the same time always subverting, playing and beguiling with his beautiful verse' Afua Hirsch

Robinson takes readers on a globe-trotting tour that combines a historian’s insight with vivid personal memories going back to just after World War II. From experiencing the 1948 ""Austerity Olympics"" in London as a young spectator to working as a journalist in the Boston Marathon media center at the moment of the 2013 bombings, Robinson offers a fascinating first-person account of the tragic and triumphant moments that impacted the world and shaped the modern sport. He chronicles the beginnings of the American running boom, the emergence of women's running, the end of the old amateur rules, and the redefinition of aging for athletes and amateurs.With an intimate perspective and insightful reporting, Robinson captures major historical events through the lens of running. He recounts running in Berlin at the time of German reunification in 1990, organizing a replacement track meet in New Zealand after the disastrous 2011 earthquake, and the triumph of Ethiopian athlete Abebe Bikila in the 1960 Olympics in Rome. As an avid runner, journalist, and fan, Robinson brings these global events to life and reveals the intimate and powerful ways in which running has intersected with recent history.

Robinson takes readers on a globe-trotting tour that combines a historian’s insight with vivid personal memories going back to just after World War II. From experiencing the 1948 ""Austerity Olympics"" in London as a young spectator to working as a journalist in the Boston Marathon media center at the moment of the 2013 bombings, Robinson offers a fascinating first-person account of the tragic and triumphant moments that impacted the world and shaped the modern sport. He chronicles the beginnings of the American running boom, the emergence of women's running, the end of the old amateur rules, and the redefinition of aging for athletes and amateurs.With an intimate perspective and insightful reporting, Robinson captures major historical events through the lens of running. He recounts running in Berlin at the time of German reunification in 1990, organizing a replacement track meet in New Zealand after the disastrous 2011 earthquake, and the triumph of Ethiopian athlete Abebe Bikila in the 1960 Olympics in Rome. As an avid runner, journalist, and fan, Robinson brings these global events to life and reveals the intimate and powerful ways in which running has intersected with recent history.

Roger Robinson recently came to the attention of UK audiences in the Bloodaxe anthology Ten, hailed by Carol Ann Duffy as "a joyful and important moment in publishing".The Butterfly Hotel is his first full collection of poetry, a telling document of the immigrant experience, from the 1980s to the present day, and the realities of uprooted culture. Butterflies hold a symbolic importance throughout, fragile yet ideal, adapting to survive.Roger Robinson is a writer and performer who lives in London. His one-man shows are The Shadow Boxer, Letter from My Father's Brother and Prohibition, all of which premiered at the British Festival of Visual Theatre at Battersea Arts Centre. He has received writing commissions from Stratford Theatre Royal East, the National Trust, the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate. His poetry has appeared in the Flipped Eye pamphlets Suitcase (2005; ISBN 9780954224776) and Suckle (2009; ISBN 9781905233212), the latter winning the Peoples Book Prize, and in the Bloodaxe anthology Ten, edited by Bernardine Evaristo and Daljit Nagra (2010; ISBN 9781852248796).

"Suckle", Roger Robinson's much-anticipated follow up to "Suitcase", proves once and for all that Roger's unique territory is memory and its capital is Trinidad - somewhere within its borders are the answers to everything, if you just look hard enough. His approach, self-deprecating yet erudite, creates intoxicating poetry flavoured with the attitude and lingo of his Trinidadian homeland. Delving into the past with much more confidence than in his debut, "Suckle" is alive with the terror and beauty of youth, and memorable for the recurring dance crew Emperors: '...I was its only non breaking member./ I did the practical things, the support:/ Someone had to carry the linoleum./ Someone had to adjust the equaliser'. Simple things, profound truths.

A visual and narrative tour of marathon history throughout the world examines marathon popularity in social, philosophical, athletic, fashion, cultural, and scientific contexts, featuring photography by such top contributors as Helmut Newton and Susan Meiselas. 25,000 first printing.