Launch events for William Martin's Marratide
‘William Martin is a remembrancer, patiently polishing the common coins of street games, folk songs and customs, and putting them back into circulation… David Jones comes to mind, but not as an immediate ancestor. Martin seems closer to George Mackay Brown, firmly rooted in a specific community and able to give the elements of its common life a sacramental value. But perhaps he is closest of all to the Vasko Popa of Earth Erect, eschewing private poetry to restore the collective symbols, releaf the ikons with gold.’ – Roger Garfitt, London Magazine
William Martin (1925-2010) was a poet of extraordinary vision and musicality. Thoroughly grounded in his native North-East England, its pit communities and industry, his song-like poems nevertheless traverse a vast geographical and historical landscape ranging from deep Celtic and Anglo-Saxon sources to the mythology and sacred sites of India, via a passionate political engagement that never limits song to mere rhetoric. He also drew on children’s games, ballads and street songs in poems showing both political anger and a wider concern for a society losing its common ground, its rituals and rites of passage. His posthumous retrospective, Marratide: Selected Poems, edited by Peter Armstrong and Jake Morris-Campbell, is published by Bloodaxe in May 2025.
Marratide: Selected Poems brings together poems from William Martin’s four collections: Cracknrigg (1983) and Hinny Beata (1987) from Taxus Press; and Marra Familia (1993) and Lammas Alanna (2000), from Bloodaxe Books. Two comprehensive introductory essays by editors Peter Armstrong and Jake Morris-Campbell discuss the life and poetry of William Martin.
A QR code links to archive audio recordings of poems from the book read (and sung) by William Martin.
Peter Armstrong was born in 1957 at Blaydon-on-Tyne. His work has 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 pamphlets Madame Noire (2008) and Two Ceremonies at the Border (2023), both from Shoestring. He worked full-time in the NHS as a mental health nurse and CBT specialist, contributing to research papers and text books. He was joint author, with Stephen Barton of CBT for Depression: an Integrated Approach (SAGE, 2019). Jake Morris-Campbell was born in South Shields in 1988 and is the author of Between the salt and the ash: a journey into the soul of Northumbria (Manchester University Press, 2025). His poetry collection Corrigenda for Costafine Town (Blue Diode Press, 2021) was longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize and Highly Commended in the 2022 Forward Prizes.
Wednesday 21 May 2025, 7.30pm
Gillian Allnutt & remembering William Martin
The Lit & Phil Library, 23 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1SE
Free event with Gillian Allnutt launching her new collection Lode and William Martin’s Marratide: Selected Poems, presented by the book’s editors Peter Armstrong and Jake Morris-Campbell with audio recordings of Bill Martin reading and singing his poems.
More information and booking here.
Tuesday 27 May 2025, 7pm
Gillian Allnutt & remembering William Martin
The Chapel, St Chad’s College, 18 North Bailey, Durham DH1 3RH
Free event with Gillian Allnutt launching her new collection Lode and William Martin’s Marratide: Selected Poems, presented by the book’s editors Peter Armstrong and Jake Morris-Campbell with audio recordings of Bill Martin reading and singing his poems.
Link with more information and booking coming soon.
Saturday 21st June 2025 (Summer Solstice)
Annual Marratide pilgrimage walk
From Maiden Paps (Tunstall Hills, Sunderland) to Cuthbert’s Crypt at Durham Cathedral, following in the footsteps of Bill Martin and Gordon Brown.
More details TBC
Saturday 12 July 2025
Remembering William Martin at Durham Miners’ Gala
This includes a screening of the Durham Beatitude film, which combines footage of past Gala gatherings with William Martin reading his poem ‘Durham Beatitude’ which mourns the 83 lives lost in the Easington Colliery Disaster of 1951. There will also be a short interview with Graham Martin, who will introduce the film.
Copies of Marratide: Selected Poems will be for sale at The People’s Bookshop stall.
More details TBC.
[09 April 2025]
