`Verse &c.’ collects a substantial body of Oliver Bernard’s poetry written since the early 1980s and the publication of `Poems’ (1983). His versions of French poets – Rimbaud, Apollinaire – are widely known and praised, but his original work has recently appeared only in small editions. `Verse &c.’ offers lyricism, narratives, political protest, poems about people, poems of place, an anonymous Middle English poem `Quia Amore Langueo’ and much else. Bernard’s variety, wit and clarity of imagination will surprise and delight.

Born in 1925, Oliver Bernard has worked as an advisory teacher of drama, and has been a director of the Speak a Poem Competition since its inception. He has lived in Norfolk for over thirty years. His `Apollinaire: Selected Poems’ is also published by Anvil. A volume of autobiography, `Getting Over It’, was published by Peter Owen in 1992.