Summary
In his 75th year, the tenth collection by the greatest living Northern Irish poet
Winner of the 2015 Griffin Poetry Prize Shortlisted for the 2014 T.S. Eliot Prize
In The Stairwell, his tenth collection, Michael Longley’s themes and forms reach a new intensity. The second part of the book is a powerful sequence of elegies for his twin brother, Peter, and the dominant mood elsewhere is elegiac. The title poem begins—’I have been thinking about the music for my funeral …
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780224101684 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0224101684 |
| Author: | Michael Longley |
| Publisher: | Vintage Publishing |
| Imprint: | Jonathan Cape |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 80 |
| Release Date: | 15 August 2014 |
| Weight: | 101g |
| Dimensions: | 200mm x 133mm x 9mm |
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What They're Saying
Critics Review
It is…the warmth in Longley’s writing that marks his poems out, makes them cherishable. Never forced, that affection is simply there. – Kate Kellaway * Observer *
Longley’s 10th collection weaves his classical themes of war, family and flaura and fauna into measured songs of commemoration for those he has loved. – Paul McCartney * Sunday Times *
A book of tiny, delicately lyrical commemorations and commendations. * Tablet *
The Stairwell…is a stupendous collection of quiet beauty and universal significance. – Bel Mooney * Daily Mail *
The book I have loved best, and have gone back to again and again. – Adam Nicolson * Evening Standard *
The Stairwell is a book reckless in loving, to make the skin prickle and the eyes blur. – Peter Scupham * Literary Review *
About The Author
Michael Longley
Michael Longley’s thirteen collections have received many awards, among them the Whitbread Prize, the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Hawthornden Prize, the Irish Times Poetry Prize and the Griffin International Prize. His Collected Poems was published in 2006, and Sidelines- Selected Prose in 2017. In 2001 he received the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, and in 2003 the Wilfred Owen Award. He was appointed CBE in 2010, and from 2007 to 2010 was Ireland Professor of Poetry. In 2017 he received the PEN Pinter Prize, and in 2018 the inaugural Yakamochi Medal. In 2015 he was made a Freeman of the City of Belfast, where he lived and worked with his wife, the critic Edna Longley, until his death in 2025. For his lifetime achievement in poetry he was awarded the 2022 Feltrinelli Poetry Prize, and in 2024 the International Roma Prize.
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