Nobody's Subject

' From John Frost to Richey Edwards, the Welsh Valleys have a proud tradition of eloquent and passionate dissent and, in Nobody's Subject, Mike Jenkins again proves himself a worthy inheritor of this tradition. This collection of political poems has an impressive range of moods, from the protest song sincerity of 'No Boom, Just Bust' and 'Fairwood Drive,' through the brilliant satire of 'Abandon the Valleys' and the broader comedy of poems about UKIP candidates' experiences with animals, to 'Of Possibilities,' a touching poem of fatherhood and the way political activism can be passed through the generations. In a world in which poetry can sometimes be dismissed as the plaything of the middle classes or a bubble-wrapped academic elite, here are important poems to shelve next to Tony Harrison, Alan Sillitoe and Robert Tressell, a collection for all of us, about what really matters now. ' - Jonathan Edwards, winner of Costa Prize for poetry , 2015.