On the Margins of Great Empires

Andrew Duncan was born in 1956 and brought up in the Midlands. He worked as a labourer (in England and Germany) after leaving school, and subsequently as a project planner with a telecoms manufacturer (1978-87), and as a programmer for the Stock Exchange (1988-91). He now lives in Nottingham, after some years as a civil servant.He has been publishing poetry since his Cambridge days in the late 70s, including In a German Hotel, Anxiety Before Entering a Room, Sound Surface, Surveillance and Compliance. He is one of the editors of Angel Exhaust and has translated a lot of modern German poetry. He has published a good deal of literary criticism in recent years, above all The Failure of Conservatism in Modern British Poetry; Centre and Periphery in Modern British Poetry, and other volumes mostly published by Shearsman.