Couldn't agree more Ian - I think it must have been a similar experience for most of us of that age (roughly).

Cheers

Tim

On 26 Nov 2013, at 12:06, ian seed wrote:

It was this PMP series which got me smitten with surrealism via the work of Philip Lamantia, which introduced me to  the Beats, to New York poetry, including its manifestations in the UK, to the work of 'outsider' poets such as Wantling, and to 'neo-romantic' poets such as George Barker. To me, as a provincial sixth former, it was exciting, and something I felt my English teacher would not have approved of. There was something deliciously subversive about the first PMP series, and I loved their black covers, the fact that they were relatively cheap (less than a pound), and that they could slip so easily into your pockets to be read on the bus back home from school.  Wrong to dismiss them all  as 'duds'.

Ian