Maxwell, Glyn
Entry updated 21 April 2025. Tagged: Author, Poet.
(1962- ) UK playwright, librettist, academic, poet and author, known mostly since he became active in the early 1980s for his Poetry; his first title of interest is Time's Fool: A Tale in Verse (2000), which replays the legend of the Flying Dutchman [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below] through the experiences of its teenage protagonist, who is trapped on a train, seemingly for ever (the narrative reaches from 1970 to a desolate Near Future 2019); he is only allowed to step outside once every seven years, on Christmas Eve, when he is forced to experience life for a day with his ageing family. He himself seems Immortal. Anticipation of his regular incarnation creates a cult (see Messiahs; Religion). Drinks with Dead Poets: The Autumn Term (2016), as its title deposes, comprises a series of Dialogues with the Dead.
Sf topoi surface imagistically throughout individual poems, variously collected. The savage synecdoches descriptive of AIs in How the Hell Are You (2020 chap) are, on the other hand, sharp and concrete. [JC]
Glyn Maxwell
born Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire: 1962
works (highly selected)
- Time's Fool: A Tale in Verse (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000) [poem: pb/]
- Drinks with Dead Poets: The Autumn Term (London: Oberon Books, 2016) [pb/]
collections and stories
- How the Hell Are You (London: Picador, 2020) [poetry: coll: chap: pb/Stanley Greene]
links
previous versions of this entry