Shortlisted for the Scottish Poetry Book of the Year 2021. This first anthology of Apocalyptic or neoromantic poetry since the 1940s includes over 200 poets, many well known (Dylan Thomas, W.S. Graham, Ted Hughes), and others quite forgotten (Ernest Frost, Paul Potts). Over forty of the poets are women, of whom Edith Sitwell and Lynette Roberts are among the most exuberant. Much of the contents has never previously been anthologised; many poems are reprinted for the first time since the 1940s. The poetry of the Second World War appears in a new context, as do early poems by Philip Larkin, Denise Levertov and Geoffrey Hill. Here, readers can enjoy an overview of the visionary modernist British and Irish poetry of the mid-century, its antecedents and its aftermath.

As a period style and as a body of work, Apocalyptic poetry will come as a revelation to most readers.