On Balance

JOHN HARVEY was born in north London in 1938. Best known as a writer of crime fiction – in 2007 he was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in crime writing – he is also a dramatist, small press publisher and poet. A new & selected poems, Out of Silence, published by Smith/Doorstop in 2014, was followed by Aslant (Shoestring Press, 2019). Recipient of honorary doctorates from the Universities of Nottingham and Hertfordshire, in 2020 he was made an Honorary Fellow of Goldsmiths College, University of London.

“Harvey is a fine poet. What is most striking is the insight into the minds and hearts of others – there is a tenderness here that many British poets do not risk.” – John Burnside

“John Harvey’s poetry is spacious, unhurried, measured, taking its time to unfurl its effect but keeping its hooks in the reader by careful control of pace and by making every word count.” – Robin Thomas, The High Window

“He articulates gentle fury at the fragility of life, the knowledge that one way or the other every relationship ends in leave-taking; and yet there is a huge sense of what makes life shine.” – Rosie Johnston, London Grip