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Honest folks, all I did was announce an issue of Shearsman. Seems to have led to an interesting thread though. I support Doug's comments, but then I would since I've committed to two whole books of Andrew's work in 1999. I'm not so sure about the "lack of production" on Andrew's part, though. Truth to tell there's quite a bit of unpublished work there. The magazine issue that I've just put out includes 20 pages of his work, of which 19 had not previously appeared in print, despite the fact that many of the poems date back to the 80s. I actually found this out while I was going over the unpublished chunk of *Threads of Iron* and reading the manuscript of the *Selected Poems* that Salt will put out some time in the future. Seemed too good an opportunity to miss. Andrew's also a restless soul - there's a lot of reworking of poems going on, and a lot of chopping and churning, which I'm sure gets in the way of expanded productivity. *Pauper Estate* (much more recent work than that in the magazine, and which I'm publishing in book form next year) has shrunk considerably under the author's critical eye, for instance. Then there's the criticism: yes it's made up of the same thread, and there's lots of it. No time to write poems if you spend much of your time reading and researching others. Peter's right to say that the crit work is largely historical in nature, but this is exactly because, for the last five years or so, Andrew has been trying to make sense of developments in British poetry since the war while consciously (perversely? I think not) avoiding received opinion about the same, whether it's of the Hobsbaum variety or, say, the Mottram variety, if I may take those two figures as opposed exemplars. This means going back and reclaiming vast numbers of writers that I imagine many of us have never heard of - sometimes with good reason, sometimes by accidents of history, fashion or litpolitics. The Havergal Brians of poetry, if you will. And he does get across the vestigial borders within the UK to give serious attention to Scottish and Anglo-Welsh poets, which is unusual in our somewhat ghettoised nation (says he from outside it). I personally find his analyses very stimulating, even when I don't agree with them, and I look forward to the final version of the book coming from Liverpool UP. When Andrew does go into straight criticism, it's likewise very stimulating. Karlien rightly mentions the valuable review of Grace Lake's *Bernache Nonnette*, but there is also the excellent review of Barry MacSweeney's *Demons* in Blade (dreadful magazine, but the issue's worth having for the review). I think Andrew just needs a push to do more of this, and I for one would welcome it. If some editor out there with space to spare for long reviews could give him some room and a challenge, the results would - I'm sure - be worth our attention. And finally, yes, his lines can really jump off the page at you. In the earlier work it's fascinating to see how a clear acknowledgement of past styles and occasionally archaicised diction can co-exist with a sharp modernity to produce something very exciting indeed - for this reader at least. The blue lash's drift of susurration Lifts beside yours. Sea of winejars sheet of copper Sea of chance! That medium In which men fall like dice through air Or drugs through flesh Borne up and pinned down Washed through the strophes of an unmoved voice; (2nd stanza of *At Cumae* published in my anthology A State of Independence, Stride, 1998). Tony Frazer %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%