MICHAEL MURPHY
The very sad news of the death of Michael Murphy at the age of 43 on 8th May 2009 has left Liverpool without one of its finest poets, one whose work had in the recent years grown in strength and assurance. His next and posthumous collection will be a revelation: the poems there have already been described as simply beautiful. Michael was also a scholar and editor of considerable standing, with work on George Garrett, Auden, Brodsky, George Szirtes, Marcel Proust, all of which has been widely acclaimed, in the words of the Guardian obituary (14th May), for ‘lucidity, intelligence, and graceful wit’. He recently edited a new edition of the poems of Kenneth Allott as well as, with his wife Deryn Rees Jones, an anthology of essays and interviews, entitled Writing Liverpool. His publshed collections of poems, After Attila, Elsewhere, and Allotments, are all published by Shoestring Press. In an incredibly short time Michael achieved a substantial body of important work. Many will remember his as a sweet and gentle man buzzing with enthusiasms not only for literature and writing but for painting and music.The achievement is there to treasure, the promise something to sadly miss.
Matt Simpson
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