Adrian Mitchell, who sadly died just before Christmas was one of poetry's great heroes, which is why The Bakehouse (www.thebakehouse.info) and the literary magazine Markings (www.markings.org.uk) are privileged to be publishing an anthology of poetry to celebrate his life.
ADRIAN: Scotland Celebrates Adrian Mitchell will be launched at The Scottish Poetry Library on October 24th @ 6.00pm and at The Bakehouse on October 25th @ 7.30pm with readings from the anthology by Liz Lochhead and other contributors. The anthology has an introduction by Edwin Morgan and includes poems from Liz, Carol Ann Duffy, Jackie Kay, Tom Pow, Paul McCartney, Michael Horovitz, Bernard Kops, Martin Espada (whose wonderful poem Epiphany for Adrian can be found on this site) and many leading Scots poets, friends who loved him, and others who were influenced by his work and share his values.
A little bit of Adrian brushed off on everyone he met!
Adrian visited The Bakehouse as part of TheWord07 Peace Festival The Bakehouse and Markings organised in S.W Scotland in August 2007(www.theword.name ). The Word brought together a quartet of old friends - Adrian, Michael Horovitz, Bernard Kops and Pete Brown - four internationally celebrated poets who contributed to the seminal Poems for Disarmament pamphlet (pub: Michael Horovitz/New Departures) in the early 60's. If you've got one - you'd get a good price on eBay!! They wrote another one for us. We still have a limited number of the pamphlets signed by all four of the contributors and with two powerful anti-war poems in it by Adrian.
This new anthology just grew and grew. When our fellow writers heard of our plans for it the response was huge and generous. A small pamphlet we said, an insert in Markings - but the love folks felt for Adrian dictated otherwise. It in no way pretends to be definitive, so if anyone feels left out, we apologize. It is our act of celebration and recognition and we hope the voices in this book will continue to raise a song and make a racket for our hero Adrian and everything he stood for.
Before returning to London Adrian said, 'I'd love to come back to the Bakehouse sometime'. His dad was a Scot and he was very proud of his Scottish connections! It was not to be but we hope the poems in this anthology will serve to remind us of his warm, bear- like twinkly eyed presence and his joyous, anarchic, courageous poetry and what each of us can do to keep the flame of peace alive and each other safe in a beautiful and dangerous world.
ADRIAN. Scotland Celebrates Adrian Mitchell Pub: Markings ISBN; 978-1-90191-317-0
Price £9.95 + £1.00 p&p (UK) £2.00 p&p (Europe) £3.10 p&p (Outside Europe)
Signed Peace Pamphlet TheWord07(Pub: Markings) ISBN 978190191302
Price £6.00 + £1.00 p&p
Available from the Bakehouse, 44 High Street, Gatehouse of Fleet, DG7 2HP after October 24th. RESERVE YOUR COPY NOW!
All profits from the sale of this anthology will be donated to the Movement for the Abolition of War, www.abolishwar.org which aims to spread the belief that the abolition of war is both desirable and possible, raise awareness of the alternatives to war for resolving national and international disputes and develop materials and strategies to educate us all from school children to those in government. It was a charity dear to Adrian’s heart.
by Chrys Salt and John Hudson of Markings magazine
