This is the first anthology of British surrealist writing in the world. Herbert Reads words when he opened the Surrealist Poems and Objects exhibition at the London Gallery at midnight on 24 November 1937 provide the title.
The British surrealist movement was, as it were, ploughed under by the Second World War which, as Read spoke, was gathering force. Yet Surrealist output was vibrant and - at its best - durable, and now takes its place in the wider European context of literary Surrealism. Remys anthology represents one coherent and deeply committed aspect of British poetry between 1930 and 1980. It was the only surrealist movement in Europe to be active, and freely so, during World War II.
Here the original texts, most of them unfindable or previously unpublished, emerge from what proved a temporary oblivion. The work is fascinating, stimulating and various. British surrealist writing is at last given a chance to voice its subversion. This illustrated edition includes an illuminating introduction (The snark was a boujum, you see), Manifestoes and Declarations of Surrealism in England, a detailed chronology and a dictionary of Surrealism in Britain.
