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Gifts from The Morning Star
Isaac Rosenberg: The war-time poet time forgot
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to the Star about an East End poet who met an untimely end in the trenches of World War I and how his work has his inspired not only his new book but his entire life
A self-portrait of Isaac Rosenberg

CHRIS SEARLE has been sending in his handwritten jazz columns to the Star on a weekly basis for years and, while old hands might be familiar with his poetry and politics, our new readers probably have no idea just how fascinating a life he has led.

It might surprise both new and old readers to find out how our jazz correspondent’s entire life has been inspired by an early 20th century poet as he revealed when I spoke with him last week about his new book Whitechapel Boy: A Reading of the Poetry of Isaac Rosenberg (pictured).

Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon were officers and could go into their underground shelters where they had desks and such, but all Rosenberg had was the trenches

Isaac Rosenberg in his military uniform
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