We Brits

John Agard has been subverting British poetry for the past 30 years with his mischievous, satirical fables which overturn all our expectations. In We Brits, the Guyanese-born word magician gives an outsider’s inside view of British life in poems that both challenge and cherish our peculiar culture and hallowed institutions. Some explore hidden connections in British history, while others are wildly inventive forays into comic territory: Shakespeare addresses the tabloids, Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed arrive in Britain at Gatwick, Heathrow and Dover, and all the foreign words flee the English dictionary.

‘John Agard’s poetry is a wonderful affirmation of life, in a language that is as vital and joyous as we are able to craft it in the Caribbean, in spite of our history of distress’ – David Dabydeen

‘His poems are direct and arresting, playful, full of startling imagery, and are hilarious, passionate and erotic as often as they are political – often managing to be all these things at once – Maura Dooley

‘The new poems create multiple entertaining voices, but they are also urgent fables for our time’ – Paula Burnett, Times Literary Supplement

‘A specialist in word trickery…Agard is one of our most consistent, culture-crossing spokesmen’ – Graeme Wright, Poetry Review

‘One of the most eloquent contemporary poets…rich in literary and cultural allusion, yet as direct as a voice in the bus queue’ – Helen Dunmore, Observer