Edwin Brock Biography

British poet, born in London; following a grammar school education he worked as a police constable and an advertising copywriter until 1972, when he became a freelance writer. He became poetry editor of Ambit in 1960. His earlier collections of poetry include An Attempt at Exorcism (1959), A Family Affair (1960), and With Love from Judas (1963), which contain numerous disquietingly intense treatments of domestic experience. A Cold Day at the Zoo (1970), The Blocked Heart (1975), and The River and the Train (1979) are among his subsequent volumes; Song of the Battery Hen (1977) and Five Ways To Kill a Man (1990) are selected editions, the latter containing much previously uncollected verse. His later work typically unites a disciplined freedom of form with an incisive straightforwardness to explore a wide range of social and personal concerns. His other works include the autobiographical verse and prose of Here Now, Always (1977) and the novel The Little White God (1962). He has also written plays for radio and television.