Publisher's Synopsis
"The language of poetry is everywhere and anywhere, even in the names of our maligned and so-called leaders. What Drayton has reaffirmed is that any language of power can be repurposed to undermine that power. It can be reinvented or cut up into pieces, "A head here / A head there". Off with their heads! There's so much fun to be had!" Toby Fitch, Poetry Editor of Overland and author of Sydney Spleen, Where Only the Sky had Hung Before, and others. "British P(oe)Ms continues Dave Drayton's ingenious and witty reinvention of the biographical poem. Devised according to formal constraints, this creatively unconstrained collection takes the reader on an imagined tour of a portrait gallery's Prime Ministerial wing. Reconfiguring the frame in every instance, these poems revel in the lesser-known facts and foibles that haunt each figure in this long line of British leaders, shining a humorous light on the absurdity that accompanies the drive to govern or to rule." Jessica Wilkinson, founding editor of Rabbit non-fiction poetry journal and author of Marionette, Suite for Percy Grainger, and Music Made Visible.
