Selected Poems

Riviere, Michael

ISBN 10: 0904533778 / ISBN 13: 9780904533774

Published by The Mandeville Press, Hitchin, 1984

About this Item

1982. First edition limited to 350 copies, of which 50 were signed by the author. Unpaginated (24 pages) plus a frontispiece taken from a print by Richard and Maria Cosway. Michael Riviere (died 1997) was a Norfolk man who turned himself into a country gentleman. The son of a doctor, he worked for a brewery in Norwich and then in London and Belgium, but in the mid-1970s retired early to the rural life in the north of the county. He began reading English at Oxford, but was swept up by war. He served in the Army and was caught in the debacle of Crete in 1941. He escaped from two camps, and so was consigned to Colditz. He spent some of his time writing poems, and became a friend of the artist Dawyck Haig, 2nd Earl Haig. This collection of poems includes a section containing three 'Poems from Colditz', but there is also a poem entitled 'Eichstatt' near the end of the book that has a pencil written note, probably by the author' that states that it is also a prisoner-of-war poem and should have been placed with the others near the beginning. The poems have been published previously by various presses, except 'John Oldham' and 'The Greek Chapel', which have been broadcast on BBC3. The book is bound in the original grey paper covered boards with a white paper or parchment spine and a paper title label on the spine and front board. The book is in excellent condition and the contents are tight and clean. The inscription on the front free endpaper reads: "Dawyck from Micky Riviere".

Seller Inventory # gPoetRiviere03

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Selected Poems
• Publisher: The Mandeville Press, Hitchin
• Publication Date: 1984
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0904533778
• ISBN 13: 9780904533774
• Binding: Paper Covered Boards
• Edition: First Edition Limited to 350 Copies
• Condition: Near Fine
• Signed: Inscribed and Signed by the au
• Seller catalogs:
  • SIGNED
  • Poetry
  • Military