Simon Mundy – författare

By Fax to Alice Springs was Simon Mundy’s second book of poems, including work from 1987 to 1995. As the title implies, the poems were written all over the world – North Carolina to Italy, Moravia to Australia – as well as in Mundy’s home territory on the borders of Wales.

Stories surrounding King Arthur have been told since time immemorial, but The Fragile Land approaches the legend from a radical angle, setting it firmly in the post-Roman world of late fifth-century Europe, chronicling the crucial years of Arthur’s life, from the age of fifteen into his early thirties, as he comes to the fore as elected Overlord.

Set in 2013, Flagey in Winter is a comedy of manners that takes place in the European Parliament itself, in bars where love and politics rub shoulders, and in the Italian Dolomites.

Simon Mundy's Selected Poems is a monumental collection that brings together work published in five collections, across five decades, including the critically acclaimed By Fax to Alice Springs and More for Helen of Troy, as well as the more recent Waiting for Music, which included many of his collaborations with composers.

Simon Mundy's new collection of poems is inspired by the landscapes of Powys, Italy, and a number of islands all over the world – Grenada, Jamaica, Shetland. And as the title suggests, More for Helen of Troy is concerned with desire: for the ideal of a beautiful woman in 'Mermaid'; for the vision of a pristine country and seaside, as in 'Radnor Songs' and 'Aspects of Sea'. As in the Trojan title sequence, these poems are both poignantly lyrical in depicting our pursuit of lofty ideals, and keenly satirical of life's inevitable disappointments. Helen proves to be an imago for women from all times: pursued, desired, lonely, restless, she haunts the poet's imagination throughout."The poems are always entertaining for their formal play and their lively lingo. Mundy can be cheeky, he can be rueful but he is always passionate." Daljit NagraSimon Mundy has broadcast for over thirty years on BBC Radio 3 and 4, and was the founder of the European Forum for the Arts and Heritage (now Culture Action Europe). He has written three poetry collections, three novels (two as James Eno) – most recently Silent Movements (2008) – and several biographies of classical musicians, including Elgar, Purcell and Tchaikovsky. He has read his work all over the world, from the Hay Festival to Brisbane. He lives in the border hills of Wales.