The Bone Flowers

Published in a special signed limited edition of 500 copies to celebrate the author's 80th birthday, John Fuller's full-length narrative poem is resonant celebration of life and the things we leave behind.

One of England’s greatest  poets – an artist unafraid to combine intellect with sensuousness

John Fuller, born in Ashford, Kent, is an acclaimed poet and novelist. His collection Stones and Fires (1996) was awarded the Forward Prize; Ghosts (2004) was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award for Poetry; The Space of Joy (2006) was shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award, and The Grey Among the Green (1988), Song &amp; Dance (2008) and Pebble &amp; I (2010) were all Poetry Book Society Recommendations. His 1983 novel Flying to Nowhere won the Whitbread First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has also written collections of short stories and several books for children. He is an Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.

‘When does a poem end?’ 
 
In this rambunctious romp of a narrative poem, John Fuller taps out the rhythms of life against the riddle of time: from his story of opportunistic art-dealer Old Billy Emerald and his fabled Shakespeare manuscript, to the ghosts of great poets and remembrances of old friends. 
 
The Bone Flowers is a resonant celebration of the things we leave behind – in art, music and poetry – as well as a stirring memento mori to gather our rosebuds while we may.

Gravel in my Shoe

A tour de force new collection from ‘one of England's finest poets’ (Daily Telegraph)

The free-wheeling, conversational, frequently didactic tone suits Fuller perfectly, enabling him to comment on art as well as life.

A significant presence in British letters

'The only peace: to know my place 
And what I now must do, 
Striding with the light full in my face, 
And gravel in my shoe.' 
 
 
Bright, elemental and as dexterously brilliant as ever, John Fuller's latest collection takes as its subject 'our ends and our origins'. Here are songs, serenades, literary cameos, an ode to a golden anniversary, a long letter to an old friend, and two majestic sequences: one dedicated to the Welsh woman of the woods, Mary Price; the other, sun-drenched sonnets that keenly observe the natural world against 'the flavour of our own mortality'. 
 
With wit, warmth and wisdom, Gravel in My Shoe playfully balances the light and shade of life, in full awareness of its passing but with a spring in its step nevertheless. It shows us, ultimately, that 'life is too short, but poetry's eternal'.

Song & Dance

A Poetry Book Society Recommendation. A sense of playfulness allied to impeccable formal skill runs through this lively new collection of light verse and occasional poems from one of our most inventive and graceful poets

Witty, sardonic and anti-romantic...This collection is Fuller's most accessible and enjoyable yet.

Jealous curses and hate poems, love lyrics and erotic dances: John Fuller has always written light verse, and Song &amp; Dance is a boisterous and engaging collection, fizzing with intelligence and wit. There are tributes, and there are celebrations. Jokes abound in 'The Spellchecker's Guide to Poetry' and the wine is poured for 'Florio Drinking Song'. Befitting Fuller's musical ear, a host of rhythms beat time. Fans will fall on pleasingly intricate riddles and admire the high-wire gymnastics of unusual verse forms, including the inverted rhopalics of 'The Trans-sexual Circus'. 
 
But behind the fun is some sharp criticism of literary attitudinising, and a climactic injunction, to dance while we can, preferably with each other.

Flawed Angel

A jewel of a fable, sparkling with wit and magic, unsettling, inspired by the Arabian Nights but with the singularity and heartrending pathos of fairy tales by Oscar Wilde.

Flawed Angel is easy to read, but persists in the mind when it has been read, and asks to be thought about

A clever pastiche of an Arabian fable in which the 18th-century ruler of a Middle Eastern land reluctantly faces up to the unsuitability of his son, a fat, dreamy boy, to act as his heir...Playful yet intelligent, it's an impressive exercise in literary impersonation

The fabulous plot carries us along at a goodish speed and...[t]he manner of writing is sculpted, arch, luscious, mellifluous, anachronistic, and a touch wayward

A beautifully textured homily on the indomitable nature of truth. As such, Fuller finally hits that elusive mark: a novel as intellectually provocative as it is emotionally beguiling

Thought-provoking, sumptuously written...a curiously beautiful and life-affirming story

It's reassuring to know that you can still go into a bookshop and buy something about dreams and souls without feeling embarrassed

Playful yet intelligent, it's an impressive exercise in literary impersonation

A beguiling mix of singsong and sweet poetry.This book begs to be read aloud

A repertory of wonders. Told with his usual warmth and wit

The most entertaining and original novel this year... Stylish

Highly original... It would be hard to top the wonderful whimsical invention of Flawed Angel

Once upon a time in a Middle Eastern land, a fat, sweet-natured little boy grows up as the son of an important ruler. His older brother was apparently still-born and so he is the heir to his father's kingdom. 
 
But far away from the royal palace a lonely prospector happens across a wild creature, half boy, half animal, roaming the forests. Eventually this strange child's adventures lead him to the capital and into the path of a platoon of deserters from Napoleon's army - the flashy, ultimately dangerous, face of Enlightenment thought in this isolated kingdom - with drastic consequences. 
 
With original poems embedded like gems in the text, this is a fable for all ages, full of shivers and delights, sadness and wonder.

The Dice Cup

A new collection of prose poems, from one Chatto's finest poets

John Fuller has achieved a melding of form and content as profound and…as original as any in The Dice Cup, with a poise and beauty that prose…cannot conjure

‘In the dice cup, then, life becomes not a design but a wager; not an adventure but a game…’ 
 
Brimming with brio and brilliance, John Fuller’s latest collection comprises exquisite philosophical arguments, dream visions, aphorisms, precise portraits, colourful fables and tableaux of life. But here too lie shadows: in departures and deteriorations, in a life balanced delicately between the known and the unknown. 
 
Taken together, The Dice Cup unfolds like a Chinese box of observations; wit, humour, pathos and playfulness entwine to thrilling and thought-provoking effect. It is a late, great work from one of our finest poets.

And other Puzzles in Poetry

Who Is Ozymandias?

An intelligent yet playful look at some of the most teasing and mystifying puzzles in poetry - a delightful addition to any poetry-lover's shelf.

Fuller's book should encourage many to go off and puzzle out poems for themselves

John Fuller is both a well-published poet and a well-tested critic of contemporary poetry. This new book gets to grips with the essential puzzlement of poetry...It is not a densely theoretical book, but written engagingly and approachably

It leaps from peak to peak, fuelled by an immense amount of learning and experience

A witty, erudite and illuminating book, which encourages one to enjoy the puzzles and pleasures of poetry without fear

Fuller’s guide will help poetry novices and experienced readers alike

Perceptive and playful…Fuller guides readers through the fundamental questions that make interpreting a poem so enjoyable and rewarding

Part of the pleasure of poetry is unravelling the mysteries and difficulties it contains and solving the puzzles that lie within. Who, for instance, is Ozymandias? What is the Snark? Who is the Emperor of Ice-Cream? Or indeed, who is 'you' in a poem? 
 
In this perceptive and playful new book, acclaimed poet John Fuller looks at some of our greatest poems and considers the number of individual puzzles at their heart, casting light on how we should approach these conundrums as readers. From riddling to double entendres, mysterious titles to red herrings, Fuller unpicks the puzzles in works that range from Browning to Bishop, Empson to Eliot, Shelley to Stevens, to help us reach the rewards and revelations that lie at the centre of some of our best-loved poems.

John Fuller

An elegantly jubilant and personal new collection celebrating love, life and creativity from award-winning poet and Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist, John Fuller 
 
In this personal and characteristically brilliant new collection from John Fuller, an abundance of memories abound. From “those once endless years” of a childhood in wartime – tasting of Granny’s chicken soup, twizzers and cherry-go-rips – to the pattern of family and friendships, important milestones are brought to vivid life. In ‘Before We Met – and After’ a sequence of recollections cherish a wife on her eightieth birthday; ‘In Whose Head’ a piece by Schumann is revisited through advancing years; and in ‘Keeper of the Fire’ and ‘In Memory of John Bayley’ late poems of remembrance memorialise lost friends. 
 
These are poems of being and time, full of lyric feeling and Fuller’s distinctive wit and lightness of touch. Alive with the clang and sway of the “chosen colours of daily family life”, together they form a resonant gathering of poems that celebrate, with thoughtfulness and joy, “the feel and length of our lives”.

John Fuller

Books by John Fuller

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