Cliff Ashby

Probably the most powerful, spare poet of his generation; recognition of his genius cannot be much longer delayed.- Guide to World Literatue, 1975

Ashby is hardly yet a household name, but he ought to be, at least among those who care for poetry - The Scotsman, 2008

British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and novelist, born in Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

; he left school at the age of 14 to work as a window-dresser in Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

. He was subsequently employed in a variety of agricultural and clerical capacities in Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

 and London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. As a poet he came to light through the legendary
X magazine

X (magazine)

X, A Quarterly Review was a British arts review published in London which ran for seven issues between 1959-1962. It was founded and co-edited by Patrick Swift and David Wright...

. In the Vulgar Tongue (1968), his first collection of poetry, was followed by The Dogs of Dewsbury (1976) and Lies and Dreams (1980). Much of Ashby's poetry presents versions of his autobiographical and observational experience of the Leeds area with a compelling unsentimentality and documentary vividness. A dourly humorous disenchantment contributes to the remarkable levelness of tone common to harrowingly personal poems and scathing reflections on the spiritual bankruptcy of modern existence. Plain Song: Collected Poems appeared in 1985. His uncompromising concern with the quality of life is also evident in his two novels, The Old Old Story and How and Why, both of which appeared in 1969.

On Ashby's Few Late Flowers(2008) Robert Nye

Robert Nye

Robert Nye FRSL is an English poet who has also written novels and plays as well as stories for children. His bestselling novel Falstaff published in 1976 was described by Michael Ratcliffe as 'one of the most ambitious and seductive novels of the decade,' and went on to win both The Hawthornden...

says: "He has just published what must be the most remarkable swansong offered by a writer in their 89th year...A sequence of quietly original poems, it is the bittersweet distillation of a lifetime's experience"