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oppositional poetry, prose, polemic
Caparison
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Welcome to The Recusant's print and e-book imprint, Caparison. The choice of name is intended to convey variety of subject and style; poetry which demonstrates a love of language in combination with a strength of subject; poetry which is unconstrained by fashionable trappings. You can download samples from the e-books below by double-clicking on the cover images. Should the sample poems whet your appetites, you can then purchase the full e-books via Paypal by double-clicking on an Add to Cart button under it. Once your payment is received, you will receive the e-book by email. Calibre or Adobe Digital Editions are recommended for viewing the ebooks.
Caparison
Christopher Moncrieff
Wallpeckers
76pp
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The intriguing title of polyglot-poet Christopher Moncrieff ’s fourth volume under the Caparison imprint, Wallpeckers, is a translation of Mauerspechte, portmanteau of Mauer (wall) and Specht (woodpecker), an informal German term used for tourists who pick pieces from the crumbling Berlin Wall to take home as souvenirs. Much of this volume draws on the poet's former experiences as an army officer posted to Cold War-era Berlin.
£14 incl. P&P (UK)
€17 incl. P&P (EU)
Alan Price
Unknown Woman & Other Attachments
48pp
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The second Caparison volume from London-based poet Alan Price following his experimental Restless Voices (2020). This volume comprises painterly poem-portraits of the various women who have had an impact on the poet's life.
Bruce Harris
The Growing Shadow
60pp
Introduction by Bruce Harris
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Bruce Harris's second Caparison volume comprises deeply moving poems that bear witness to his late partner's decade-long battle with Huntington's Disease.
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All proceeds from sales will be donated to the Huntington's Disease Centre at University College London.
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www.ucl.ac.uk/ion/research/research-centres/huntingtons-disease-centre
John McKeown
The Chain Bridge
68pp
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This stunning Caparison debut from veteran Liverpool-born, Prague-based poet John McKeown is his seventh volume, and arguably his best to date, lyrically rich and unobtrusively sublime.
Alessandro Cusimano
Blacken the Sun
58pp
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Italian 'Expressivist' poet Alessandro Cusimano's second volume from Caparison, as devastating, visceral, visionary and imaginative as his taboo-busting debut.
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£12 incl. P&P (UK)
€15 incl. P&P (EU)
$16 incl. P&P (Outside EU)
£14 incl. P&P (UK)
€17 incl. P&P (EU)
$18 incl. P&P (Outside EU)
£14 incl. P&P (UK)
€17 incl. P&P (EU)
$18 incl. P&P (Outside EU)
£14 incl. P&P (UK)
€17 incl. P&P (EU)
$18 incl. P&P (Outside EU)
$18 incl. P&P (Outside EU)
Alan Morrison
Rag Argonauts
148pp (2024) NOW AVAILABLE TO ORDER
Clothbound hardback with wraparound dust jacket
Alan Morrison's twelfth full volume of poetry. As we voyage through the uncharted waters of the post-Covid 2020s to the scourge of war again on the European continent, and in the Middle East, a 'cost of living' (or 'greed') crisis of capitalism, a climate and refugee emergency, and an ever-increasing worldwide gap between the super rich and the super poor, we are in a period of ever scarcer resources, a 'ragtime' of a very different timbre to the syncopated rhythms popular during the hedonistic 'roaring' decade of a century ago.
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£16 incl. P&P (UK)
€19 incl. P&P (EU)
£22 incl. P&P (Outside EU)
Alan Morrison
Green Hauntings - New & Selected Poems 2006-2016
322pp (2022)
Foreword by Fran Lock
Clothbound hardback with wraparound dust jacket
Selections from four of Alan Morrison’s first six full volumes of poetry: The Mansion Gardens (2006), A Tapestry of Absent Sitters (2009), Blaze a Vanishing and The Tall Skies (2013), and Shadows Waltz Haltingly (2015)—published by Paula Brown Publishing, Waterloo Press, and Lapwing Publications, respectively.
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£20 incl. P&P (UK)
£25 / €28.66 incl. P&P (EU)
£35 / $39.57 incl. P&P (Outside EU)
Alessandro Cusimano
Arabesques of a Nervous Wandering
Extended New Print Edition
84pp
Foreword by Alan Morrison
Cusimano's mesmerising volume originally produced as an ebook only in 2011 is now available as an extended print edition with two new poem plays included, 'The Iron Will of Axel Green' and 'The Heady Vertigo of Sin'.
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...sensual explorations reminiscent of those of Rimbaud
Donald Webb
New
£14 incl. P&P (UK)
£17 / €19.73 incl. P&P (EU)
£21 / $26.15 incl. P&P (Outside EU)
Gordon Scapens
History Doesn't Die
66pp
Foreword by Alan Morrison
The belated debut volume of Preston-based veteran poet Gordon Scapens. Deeply compassionate meditations on time, memory, nostalgia, regret, mortality and posterity collect together as a poetic concatenation of the human condition.
£12 incl. P&P (UK)
£15 / €17.42 incl. P&P (EU)
£19 / $24.28 incl. P&P (Outside EU)
New
New
Christopher Moncrieff
English Not Spoken
88pp (2023)
Illustrated
Foreword by Alan Morrison
English Not Spoken is the third Caparison volume by Christopher Moncrieff. It recalibrates the Continental travelogue, military reminiscences and surreal Mortmere-esque grotesque of Moncrieff's two previous Caparison volumes, with the poet’s signature mordant wit and satirical deconstruction.
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£14 incl. P&P (UK)
£17 / €19.73 incl. P&P (EU)
£21 / $26.15 incl. P&P (Outside EU)
New
Sally Richards
Emperor Dragonfly Extended New Print Edition
68pp (2023)
Forewords by Alan Morrison
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Richards' volume originally produced as an ebook only in 2011 is now available as an extended print edition with ten new poems added.
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Richards’ poetry actually says something which is quite rare in modern poetry... She creates very successfully a doubt in the mind of the reader...
Nigel Humphreys
£12 incl. P&P (UK)
£15 / €17.41 incl. P&P (EU)
£19 / $23.66 incl. P&P (Outside EU)
Peter Street
Earth Talk
54pp (2020)
Caparison is proud to announce an eco-poetry collection from a distinctive veteran poet.
£9 incl. P&P (UK)
£12 incl. P&P (EU)
£16 incl. P&P (Outside EU)
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Christopher Moncrieff
Mermaids in Wormwood, 160pp (2021)
Illustrated
Foreword by Alan Morrison
Moncrieff's second collection is a phantasmagorical navigation of undergraduate angst in a Cambridge college.
£13 incl. P&P (UK)
£16 incl. P&P (EU)
£20 incl. P&P (Outside EU)
Christopher Moncrieff
Tabac Blond, 136pp (2019)
Illustrated
Foreword by Alan Morrison
Caparison is proud to announce the debut poetry collection from prolific poet and translator Christopher Moncrieff. This is implicitly European poetry: lyrical, polemical and unashamedly erudite.
£13 incl. P&P (UK)
£16 incl. P&P (EU)
£20 incl. P&P (Outside EU)
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New
Alan Price
Restless Voices
56pp (2020)
A collection of strikingly filmic cut-up poems.
£11 incl. P&P(UK)
£14 incl. P&P (EU)
£18 incl. P&P (Outside EU)
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Bruce Harris
The Huntington Hydra, 100pp
print book
£11 incl. P&P (UK)
£14 incl. P&P (EU)
£18 incl. P&P (Outside EU)
Howard Mingham Waters of the Night
Collected Poems 1974-84 (print book)
Forewords by David Kessel and Ken Worpole
Afterword by Alan Morrison
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The complete poems of a truly gifted and original poet.
e-book £2.99
£11 incl. P&P (UK)
£14 incl. P&P (EU)
£18 incl. P&P (Outside EU)
Peter Branson Red Shift, 60pp
(e-book only) Introduction by Alan Morrison
The poetry of Peter Branson is an accomplished combination of tone, style and subject one might not normally presume to go together: economy and flourish, restraint and passion, private-mindedness and social conscience. Branson manages to blend these variants into a handsome harmony, making for a poetry both emotionally and intellectually affecting. These poems ruminate on the many-coloured conflicts of today: from the clashes of the banking crisis to the scrub of Afghanistan.
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Price £2.99
Sally Richards Emperor Dragonfly, 60pp
Introduction by Alan Morrison (e-book only)
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Richards’ poetry actually says something which is quite rare in modern poetry... She creates very successfully a doubt in the mind of the reader...
Nigel Humphreys
Price £2.99
Kevin Saving Miracle & Mirage 60pp
Introduction by Alan Morrison (e-book only)
Kevin Saving’s best lines have the authority of proverbs (but are more musical!)
Alison Brackenbury
Price £2.99
Alessandro Cusimano Arabesques
of a Nervous Wandering, 64pp
Foreword by Alan Morrison (e-book only)
...sensual explorations reminiscent of those of Rimbaud
Donald Webb
Price £2.99