Oswald's Book of Hours Najwa Binshatwan

Oswald's Book of Hours Najwa BinshatwanShortlisted for the 2013 Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Oswald, King of Northumbria from 635 to 642 AD, was a warrior, evangelist, hunter, scholar, martyr and, most famously of all, main rival to Georges claim to be patron saint of England. Oswalds Book of Hours is a series of elegies and eulogies for Oswald, written in the voices of an unlikely band of northern radicals, including union leader Arthur Scargill, hermit Richard Rolle, brigand

A poet full of individuality

The effect is personal

This is a reissue of Italian poet Paolo Ruffilli's long poem La gioia e il lutto

invisible and unheard

all of whom are inspired in different ways by England's second-largest county

along with Ted Hughes

" wrote Brecht

He is full of life and lust

Sandor Mrai

His work also features in the Forward Book of Poetry 2009

Chris Matthews is a topographer and local historian who lectures in graphic design at Lincoln University

others ignore them