Review
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
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
About the Author
Poet, performer, anthologist, John Agard was born in Guyana and came to Britain in 1977. He won the Casa de las Americas Prize in 1982, and a Paul Hamlyn Award in 1997. He was writer-in-residence with the BBC in 1998, working with the Windrush Project, and writer-in-residence at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich in 2007. His books include five collections from Bloodaxe, From the Devil's Pulpit (1997), Weblines (2000), and We Brits (2006), which was shortlisted for the 2007 Decibel Writer of the Year Award; and now Alternative Anthem: Selected Poems and Clever Backbone, published simultaneously in 2009. His anthology Hello New (2000), published by Orchard Books, was chosen by the Poetry Society as its Children's Poetry Bookshelf Best Anthology. He lives in Lewes, East Sussex.
![Alternative Anthem: Selected Poems [with DVD]](http://web.archive.org/web/20151230222452im_/http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/418zJe86YML._AC_UL160_SR107,160_.jpg)
![Alternative Anthem: Selected Poems [with DVD]](http://web.archive.org/web/20151230222452im_/http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/418zJe86YML._AC_UL70_SR70,70_.jpg)
