Queries on Death, the Infinite and Irrational Numbers

Beneath the sharp social satire lurks a psychological insight, a sensitivity to a profound cultural inheritance * The Times *A frame of reference ranging from the scabrous to the desolately chic, as if Tristan Corbière were trying to get over an affair with Angelina Jolie – Clive JamesHis talent is unignorable – Cressida ConnollyOne of Stammers’s most impressive qualities is the ease with which he moves through a whole range of styles and tones, his constant capacity to surprise * Guardian *A spectacular talent … Stammers’s voice is idiosyncratic, at once tender and funny, fresh and familiar * Telegraph *

John Stammers was born in Islington and now lives in Oxfordshire. As a teacher he has been associated with two Cambridge colleges as well as King’s College London, of which he was appointed an Associate after reading philosophy there as an undergraduate. He was one of several poets who emerged through the tutelary example of the late Michael Donaghy, publishing his debut Panoramic Lounge-bar in 2001, which went on to win the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Stolen Love Behaviour followed, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, and Interior Night too. John has edited The Picador Book of Love Poems and a selection of the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins in Faber’s Poet to Poet series.