Have Yourself a Very Scary (London) Halloween

Londonist is all praise for poet (and truly creative detective) Chris McCabe and his new book Cenotaph South: Mapping the Lost Poets of Nunhead Cemetery, which seeks out and explores the final resting places of London's "lost poets." In reviewing the fresh tome for Londonist Harry Rosehill writes:

Poet Chris McCabe has restyled himself as a literary detective, to discover the lost poets residing in London's 'Magnificent Seven' cemeteries. His book Cenotaph South: Mapping the Lost Poets of Nunhead Cemetery does pretty much what it says on the tin.

Except that McCabe's work stretches further than just Nunhead; he has combed through the other magnificent six too, discovering 12 other poets, and making an important discovery about William Blake's vision of an angel on Peckham Rye along the way.

According to the collection's publisher, Penned in the Margins, McCabe's project is probing and revelatory:

"An ambitious project to plot the dead poets of the Magnificent Seven – London’s great Victorian cemeteries – McCabe drills deep into the psyche of the city, and into his own past. Encounters with the dead and forgotten are charted in sinuous prose and with a wry humour that belies his meticulous research. Cenotaph South offers a powerful meditation on art, writing, memory and community, confirming McCabe as contemporary poetry’s most innovative thinker. This is essential reading for anyone who has ever wondered what lies behind the canon, or beyond the cemetery gates."

Scare yourself just reading about it at Londonist.