After publishing Rina’s War (2001) and The Red Zone (2007), The Parrots of Villa Gruber Discover Lapis Lazuli completes Julian Stannard's Genoese trilogy. This latest collection also looks at England with new eyes.

"I like the cosmopolitanism of these poems. This is not just a matter of crossing national frontiers with ease, but a seemingly boundless curiosity about human behaviour at all levels."
Christopher Reid on Rina's War

"It's not often that a book of poetry makes me laugh out loud, but this one did, in delighted recognition of what is embarrassing, absurd, so British. It's masterly."
Anne Berkeley on 'The Red Zone' in Seam

"Reading his dazzling little vignettes about a whoring, drinking, greasy-palmed yet colourfully enticing world, I'm glad I need not encounter such people and places. And this is a compliment."
Michael Tolkien on 'The Red Zone' in Ambit

Julian Stannard taught English and American Literature at the University of Genoa for many years. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, the TLS, The Spectator, Sunday Telegraph, Poetry Review, Poetry London, PN Review, Ambit and Nuova Corrente (Italy). He teaches English and Creative Writing at the University of Winchester.