The Disappearing Poet

In 1879 the French poet Arthur Rimbaud gave up writing poetry and disappeared. Having reinvented French poetry he literally disappeared off the map, becoming an explorer and arms dealer in the Horn of Africa.

In 1979 the British poet Rosemary Tonks, regarded as one of the leading poets of the time, similarly disappeared, severing all connection with the literary world, and spent the rest of her life with a different identity in Bournemouth.

Combining great literature with all the mystery of a Whodunit, this event will explore the creativity and psychology of these two creative souls, and will ask why two such great poets chose to disappears

SPEAKERS
Neil Astley is the distinguished editor of Bloodaxe Books, knew Rosemary Tonks’s whereabouts, and has written about both her disappearance and her work. A new edition of her poems is being published in October 2014 and will be launched at this event.

Tim Mathews is Professor of French and Comparative Criticism at UCL, and has a particular knowledge of the French Symbolist poets, including Arthur Rimbaud. His most recent book, Alberto Giacometti: The Art of Relation was published by I.B. Tauris in 2014.

POETS
George Szirtes is one of the UK’s most acclaimed poets. He has won many prestigious prizes, most recently the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2004 for his collection Reel. His translations from Hungarian poetry, fiction and drama have also won numerous awards. Writing in the Guardian on 1 September 2014 he declared that Rimbaud’s poems changed his life.

Matthew Caley is an acclaimed contemporary poet. His third collection of poems, entitled Apparently, was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2010.

ACTORS
Lucy Tregear, an acclaimed actor whose credits include the opera The Minotaur (2008), recently appeared in the Middlemarch Trilogy at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond. She will be reading the poems of Rosemary Tonks.

Ben Lambert, an acclaimed British actor whose film credits include Zero Dark Thirty, will be reading a selection of Rimbaud poems in English translation.

The Rimbaud and Verlaine Foundation, Charity commission number 1157063, is a company limited by guarantee number 07559463. Taking inspiration from Rimbaud and Verlaine, the Foundation wishes to encourage engagement with the arts, especially amongst those with clear social and educational need, and to broaden horizons by means of cultural exchange.

Poet in the City is a registered charity committed to attracting new audiences to poetry, making new connections for poetry, and raising money to support poetry education.