Peter Armstrong’s To No Place includes a substantial selection of new poems written over the last decade in which he has continued to explore the themes of faith and doubt, loss and belonging that have long been the hallmark of his work. Throughout, he pursues an enduring engagement with place, whether in his native North-East England, or the edge-landscapes of Donegal, Hebrides, or the Baltic coast.
Anne Stevenson highlighted a cinematic aspect to Armstrong’s poetry, and these poems present a vision of landscape that gives as much weight to a forgotten motorway spur as to a wider rural and post-industrial North, or the yet wider spaces of Western Australia. The book brings together poems from Armstrong’s four collections, Risings (1988), The Red-funnelled Boat (1998), The Capital of Nowhere (2003) and The Book of Ogham (2012), together with others from his chapbook Madame Noire (2008) and work published in anthologies and journals. .
Price: $24.00
Pages: 224
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
Imprint: Bloodaxe Books
Publication Date:
April 27, 2027
Trim Size: 9.25 X 6.25 in
ISBN: 9781780378084
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
POETRY / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, POETRY / Subjects & Themes / Places, POETRY / Subjects & Themes / Religious, POETRY / Subjects & Themes / Death, Grief, Loss
He is one of the very few poets to have appeared in the last thirty years with the skill to work with the grain of Auden’s English, and turn it to original ends… These intricate, radiant and politically articulate meditations on art, work and the North…represent some of the most intelligent by an English poet writing today.
—Don Paterson‘The poet, you feel, is a cartographer walking his own map, taking you with him on a guided tour of places and people that are almost out of touch with themselves; and on this journey, nowhere is a place you have to come to, however unsettling the view, however far from home you might feel.’ – Poetry Book Society Bulletin on The Capital of Nowhere
‘A resolute sense of the weight of words and a humorous melancholy. Brilliant!’ – John Hartley Williams, Morning Star, on The Book of Ogham
‘What makes Armstrong’s work so satisfying, and so rewarding to rereadings, is its combination of discreet, uncluttered craftsmanship and readiness to tease complex materials into the light.’ – Sean O’Brien, on The Red-funnelled Boat
Peter Armstrong was born in 1957 at Blaydon-on-Tyne, North-East England. After a selection of his early poetry was included in Neil Astley's anthology Ten North-East Poets (1980), his work appeared in four main collections: Risings (Enitharmon Press, 1988), The Red-funnelled Boat (Picador, 1998), The Capital of Nowhere (Picador, 2003) and The Book of Ogham (Shoestring Press, 2012), together with two pamphlets, Madame Noire (2008) and Two Ceremonies at the Border (2023), both from Shoestring Press. He worked full-time in the NHS as a mental health nurse and CBT specialist, contributing to research papers and text books. He is co-editor with Jake Morris-Campbell of William Martin's Marratide: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2025). He lives in Northumberland.
