Robert Edwards
ALLi Author Member
Location: United Kingdom
Genres:
I write, design and publish my books and (usually) distribute them directly myself. Four are volumes of poetry; three, journals and autobiography. The county of Sussex features prominently in several of the books, most of which are illustrated with drawings - in one, my own, in another, my photos. The books have all been printed by the same local studio, in a uniform general design and dimension, on card and paper of high quality, and most are thread-bound. Each poetry book is concerned with a particular and unifying theme of its own, while all share a principal focus on landscape, architecture and nature. Biographical, social and cultural elements in the subject matter tend to be historically or geographically orientated. The forms vary between classical and free verse, and the style can be dramatic and comical or thoughtful and contemplative, the phraseology rhythmic and quirky. Three of the books are in second, revised editions, and all have explanatory prefaces. Like the poetry, the journals are essentially descriptive, and again single-themed, one relating to my operation of a pedlar's licence in towns and countryside, one the diary of a view from a coastal window - a joint work with paintings, drawings and sketches by the artist Dominic Sladden - and the other a volume of autobiographical essays. All are essentially literary rather than eventful.
Robert Edwards' books
Genres: Travel Writing, Humorous Poetry, Nature Poetry
Formats: Paperback
Age Groups: 18+
An 80 page volume, printed on high quality card and paper, thread-bound, illustrated with colour photography by the author; entirely designed, produced (apart from printing and binding) and published by him. The book is a second, revised edition, published in 2025. It consists of a collection of poems observing and describing scenes of or involving trees, woods and forests predominantly of beech. An autobiographical preface explains the formative experience of a childhood in a Sussex forest village home surrounded by woodland dominated by beech trees, making an impression of intensity and intimacy leading to an enduring fascination and life-long passion for the species. The romantic and enthusiastic elements are counterbalanced in the poetry by moments and passages of context, objectivity, comedy and self-questioning. Moreover, many other types of tree and wildlife make appearances along the way, and plenty of the beeches featured are found in urban settings. The geographical area...
Genres: Essays, Memoir
Formats: Paperback
Age Groups: 18+
A 300 page volume, printed on high quality card and paper, thread-bound, published in 2023; entirely designed, produced (apart from printing and binding) and published by the author. The book is a collection of sixteen stand-alone chapters, each of them an essay in the form of a chronological account of a theme in the author's life. Subjects may be utilities - for example cars, architecture - or behavioural - clothes, performance - or conceptual or abstract - nonconformities, number. The work endeavours to be as accurate and truthful as possible while sceptical of great success in either of those respects. Principal grounds for calling the pieces essays were that they should be literary and probing. Digressions and diversions occur. The book is intended to be durable, distinctive and entertaining.
Genres: Epic Poetry, Humorous Poetry, Nature Poetry
Formats: Paperback
Age Groups: 18+
An 80 page volume, printed on high quality card and paper, thread-bound, illustrated with drawings by Karen Grace; entirely designed, produced (apart from printing and binding) and published by the author. The book is a second, revised edition, published in 2016. It consists of a collection of poems observing and describing architecture, vistas, events, institutions and people of Brighton, by a writer with extensive family background in the town and surrounding area of Sussex. Composed in generally lucid and conventional language and phraseology, the forms range from classical scan and rhyme to free verse, and the tone varies from comical and ironical to complimentary and affectionate, in moods of contrasting temperamental character. The term 'burble' of the title was a originally a self-deprecatory flippant joke applied to the title of a slim pamphlet containing the earliest poems; the ISBN arrived together unexpectedly with nine more numbers, under the term chosen...
Genres: General Nonfiction, Narrative Nonfiction, Nature/Science
Formats: Paperback
Age Groups: 18+
A 128-page volume, printed on high quality card and paper, thread-bound, published in 2010. The book is a collaboration by a writer and an artist, designed and produced by them (apart from printing and binding), and published by the author. It is a diary describing the view from a large window in a late Georgian garden square overlooking the sea, on the south coast of England. The diary is a concise factual account of scenes and moments at the time of their observation, composed in a richly literary style of prose, spanning three periods each of twelve months, separated by intervals of a decade. The artwork, undertaken for the duration of the third sequence, is intermingled with the text and distributed throughout the book: vibrant original paintings, drawings and sketches - in watercolour, oil and pen and ink - of scenes at the same location, generally independent of specific references...
Genres: Memoir
Formats: Paperback
Age Groups: 18+
A 200 page volume, entirely designed, produced (apart from printing and binding) and published by the author; published in 2008. The book is a chronological collection of diary entries relating the gradual fulfilment of an unlikely method and manner of sales by the author of his own poetry books. It is the account of the realisation of a singular and tailored certification - and chiefly the chance encounters with a wide variety of customers in settings throughout Sussex.
Genres: Humorous Poetry, Nature Poetry, Other Poetry
Formats: Paperback
Age Groups: 18+
An 80 page volume, 11x18cm, printed on high quality card and paper, thread-bound, illustrated with drawings by Karen Grace; entirely designed, produced (apart from printing and binding) and published by the author. The book is a second, revised edition, a third and further revised edition of which is planned for publication later in 2026. The book is a collection of poems observing and describing a variety of specific locations, landscapes, architecture, events, institutions and people of Sussex, by a writer with a life-long background there. The forms range from classical scan and rhyme to free verse, and the tone varies from exuberant or comical to sober or tentative. The 'attitudes' of the title are meant to mean the conveyance of thoughts and sentiments of the poet to the subject matter, and implicit poses, conscious or unconscious, thereby struck. Composed in generally lucid, transparent language, the tone is nevertheless often wistful...
Genres: Travel Writing, Humorous Poetry, Other Poetry
Formats: Paperback
Age Groups: 18+
An 80 page volume, printed on high quality card and paper, thread-bound, illustrated with nonprofessional drawings by the author; entirely designed, produced (apart from printing and binding) and published by the author. The book consists of a collection of poems observing and describing the appearance, character and context - weather and river conditions, human activity - of the eighteen road bridges over the tidal River Thames in London, from Tower Bridge in the east to Richmond in the west. There are three sequences of all eighteen, each sequence written at a different time, between the mid-1980s and the late 1990s. Composed in generally lucid and conventional language, the forms range in length, and in style from classical scan and rhyme to free verse. The tone varies from comical and carefree to sober and intricate. The title Bridge Bluster was influenced by that of the preceding book Brighton Burble (and succeeded...