A01=Graeme Richardson
Author_Graeme Richardson
British
Category=DCC
Category=DCF
Category=QRM
Childhood
Christianity
Debut
Desire
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eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_poetry
Family
Fatherhood
First Collection
Humour
Mortality
Nottinghamshire
Poet
Poetry
Religion
Sex
Product details
- ISBN 9781800175341
- Dimensions: 135 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 29 Jan 2026
- Publisher: Carcanet Press Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Rooted in religion, grounded and earthy, the debut collection from the Poetry Critic for the Sunday Times delivers frank and humorous poems about mortality, desire, and the joys and griefs of fatherhood.
In Dirt Rich, Richardson digs deep into his past: a childhood in the Nottinghamshire coalfield, his ‘hatch / match / dispatch’ duties as a Church of England Parish Priest, and years of work with Archaeological Science in Germany.
These poems deal with the dirt we dish, the mud we sling, the treasure we bury. In this startlingly honest first collection, love is celebrated, loss confronted, and life’s trade-offs presented – do we choose loving or knowing, faith or the void, time or eternity? In coalmines and churchyards and fossil-hunting digs, the hope of resurrection persists. These are poems of personality and beauty, to be learnt by heart and taken to heart.
In Dirt Rich, Richardson digs deep into his past: a childhood in the Nottinghamshire coalfield, his ‘hatch / match / dispatch’ duties as a Church of England Parish Priest, and years of work with Archaeological Science in Germany.
These poems deal with the dirt we dish, the mud we sling, the treasure we bury. In this startlingly honest first collection, love is celebrated, loss confronted, and life’s trade-offs presented – do we choose loving or knowing, faith or the void, time or eternity? In coalmines and churchyards and fossil-hunting digs, the hope of resurrection persists. These are poems of personality and beauty, to be learnt by heart and taken to heart.
Graeme Richardson grew up in Nottinghamshire, and now lives and works in Germany. A former Chaplain and Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, he has also served as a Parish Priest in Hertfordshire and Birmingham. Over the last twenty years, his writing has featured in various publications including the Guardian and the Times, and he has been a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement since 2010. A first pamphlet, Hang Time, was published in 2006 from Landfill Press; his second pamphlet, Last of the Coalmine Choirboys came out in 2024 from New Walk Editions. Since 2022 he has also been the Poetry Critic of the Sunday Times.
