Gavin Bantock's challenging new poem is written in the form of an Euclidean theorem. It sets forth a proposition, often in a sharply satirical and polemic vein, for world peace. Mr Bantock is `not afraid to think big, to stick
out his neck, and to write of man's fragile vanity', as Kevin Crossley-Holland wrote of `Juggernaut'. In `Eirenikon' his account of mankind's pollution both of the world and himself, is violent and disturbing; but it is finally a humanistic poem written for love of man - with vigour, humour, irony and a striking originality of style and method.

Gavin Bantock was born in 1939. While at New College, Oxford, he wrote his long poem `Christ' which shared the Richard Hillary Award for 1964 and the Poetry Society's Award for 1966. Since 1969, when he received an Eric
Gregory Award for his poems (including those in `A New Thing Breathing', 1969) he has lived and taught at Reitaku University in Japan.