Glyn Maxwell’s precocious, prolific talent established him as one of the brightest talents to have emerged in British poetry over the past two decades. His debut collection Tale of the Mayor’s Son (1990) was a Poetry Book Society Choice. His second, Out of the Rain (1992) won him the Somerset Maugham Award. His third collection, Rest for the Wicked (1995), like his second, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award and was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. He has since published several books with Faber and Picador.
The Boys at Twilight lines up all the star poems from his three Bloodaxe collections. This is not just early but vintage Maxwell: the lad bursting on the scene with his strange narratives and edgy syntax, then transforming himself in the course of these three books into a modern master whose formal skills and much celebrated imaginative gifts have been surpassed by very few of his contemporaries.
‘England’s brightest new poet for a decade.’ – Guardian
‘Maxwell looks well on his way to becoming the complete modern English poet.’ – David Kennedy, Poetry Review
‘Though the theme of the collection is men – men as actors, old boys, suitors, soldiers, moneymakers – it is more deeply about men’s language as stolid self-deception, swirled about and undercut by the lithe currents of poetry.' – Adam Thorpe, Observer
‘Maxwell writes not only about suburbia and its effect on the psyche, but about the boy in the man…tough, elegant lines that linger and force you to return to them’ – Nick Hornby
‘Formal verse with a bravura not dared before’ – Derek Walcott
