Changes in the political and economic climate in Cornwall – the decline of the traditional industries of fishing and mining, the rise of tourism and the influence of the mass media – make this anthology of Cornish poetry timely, as fifty writers, new talents as well as familiar names – Thomas Hardy, W.S. Graham, D.M. Thomas, John Betjeman, Hugh MacDiarmid, A.L. Rowse, Charles Causley, Jack Clemo, Tim Saunders, Anne Treneer, Bill Headdon, Frank Ruhrmund and Alan M. Kent himself – tackle themes ranging from Methodism to neo-Paganism, the landscape, emigration, Cornish identity and language and the artistic inheritance of the St Ives school. The Dreamt Sea is essential for anyone interested in literary Cornwall in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Charles Causley wrote of Voices from West Barbary: ‘A valuable piece of scholarship wonderfully well-done… a genuine contribution to the literature of Cornwall… irresistible!’
