MARIA DUARTE, JAMES WALSH and ANDY HEDGECOCK review The Invite, My Father’s Island, Nirvanna: the Band, the Show, the Movie, and Oh My Goodness!
THE poet Larry Beckett’s songs have been recorded by musicians all over the world. Song to the Siren, which he wrote with Tim Buckley, has been covered by David Gray, This Mortal Coil, Robert Plant, Bryan Ferry, George Michael and Sinead O’Connor.
But Beckett is also a widely respected poet who has translated many poets into English, including Heraclitus, Goethe, Li Po and Jose-Maria de Heredia.
For over 40 years he has been writing a series of long poems exploring the intersections of north American history, myth and song and Paul Bunyan (Smokestack Books, £9.95), includes a CD of a complete live performance of the poem.
ALAN MORRISON recommends a consummate, heart-warming collection about a working-class upbringing in the industrial north-east
SUE TURNER is fascinated by a book that researches who the largely immigrant workforce were that built the Empire State
MARJORIE MAYO welcomes an account of family life after Oscar Wilde, a cathartic exercise, written by his grandson


