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CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE TO GO TO THE HIGH WINDOW PRESS'S PAGE ON FACEBOOK - MY LATEST POETRY COLLECTION: SHEPHERD'S WARNING WILL BE PUBLISHED WITH THEM SOON. FOR MORE DETAILS CLICK ON:
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mervyn linford - poet - author - publisher
I run a small not-for-profit poetry press working on a cost/plus basis. I charge the poet the cost of printing plus a minimal amount for expenses and contingency. There are no contracts with the Littoral Press and the copyright remains 100% with the author. I only publish work that I consider to be of the highest quality. Unfortunately this means that there are far more rejections than acceptances, but don't let that stop you from submitting. For further details click on the About Us button.
IF YOU WISH TO PURCHASE ANY OF MERVYN LINFORD'S BOOKS ILLUSTRATED BELOW THE PRICES POST FREE ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE. PLEASE SEND CHEQUES PAYABLE TO MERVYN LINFORD TO 15 HARWOOD PLACE, LAVENHAM, SUFFOLK CO10 9SG : FOR THE PURCHASE OF BOOKS BY ANY OF THE OTHER AUTHORS PLEASE EMAIL ME IN THE FIRST INSTANCE BECAUSE IF I DON'T HAVE COPIES MORE OFTEN THAN NOT THE AUTHOR'S WILL AND I CAN REDIRECT YOU ACCORDINGLY.
Finding the River Horse - poems - Neil Leadbeater: Littoral Press - 75 pages £7.99
The Incomplete Dangler - Fifty years of Sea and Freshwater Fishing - Mervyn Linford:
Littoral Press 260 pages illustrated throughout with b/w photographs £9.99
Singing for Mr Bear - poems - Maggie Freeman: Littoral Press 65 pages £7.95
The Willow Pond - A 1950s Childhood in Southeast Essex - Mervyn Linford: Littoral Press 268 pages £11.99
Reflections - Twelve months, twelve moods along the Chelmer/Blackwater Navigation - Mervyn Linford:
Littoral Press 168 pages - illustrated throughout with colour photographs - £13.99
Bullshit & Bootlace Ties - Basildon Boys, Southend Girls - A Teenage Extravaganza - Mervyn Linford:
Littoral Press 268 pages £12.99
Everyday Objects, Chance Remarks - poems - Derek Adams: Littoral Press 60 pages £8.50
A Tilt in the Year - poems - winner of the Littoral Press full collection poetry competition 2017 - Jennie Carr: Littoral Press 74 pages £8.50 Now available in Blackwell's Bookshop - Oxford
Double Vision - poems - Mervyn Linford & Clare Harvey: Littoral Press 48 pages £6.50
Equinoctial - poems - Judy Gahagan: Littoral Press 59 pages £6.99
Hearting Spread with a Slow Hand - poems - Jill Elulalie Dawson: Littoral Press 63 pages £6.99
Chorus and Coda - poems - Adrian Green: Littoral Press 104 pages £6.95
A Short Poetic Anthology - poems - Luis Benitez/Buenos Aires: Littoral Press 87 pages £9.99
Dialogue for One - poems - Jill Wallis: Littoral Press 56 pages £7.50
Collected Poems Volume One 1984-2010 - Tom Bryan: Littoral Press 78 pages £9.00
Collected Poems Volume Two 2011 - 2019 - Tom Bryan: Littoral Press 61 pages £9.00
Collected Poems - Mervyn Linford: Littoral Press 319 pages £11.99
Lavenham to Leigh-on-Sea - Country ways/Coastal Waters - a country journal - Mervyn Linford:
Littoral Press 92 pages illustrated with b/w photos £9.99
Hoarding Conkers at Hailes Abbey - poems - Neil Leadbeater: Littoral Press 53 pages £7.99
Notes from the Fields - Wethersfield, Finchingfield and the Bardfields - A Country Notebook - Mervyn Linford: Littoral Press 317 pages &12.99
The East Seaxe - a book of poems and full page black and white photographs celebrating the coast and the countryside of Essex - Robert Hallmann & Mervyn Linford: Littoral Press 113 pages £9.99
Scenes from the Interior - a novella - Judy Gahagan: Littoral Press 136 pages £8.99
Refuge - a novella - Judy Gahagan: Littoral Press 90 pages £7.50
Basildon New Town - A Memoir 1952-1969 - Mervyn Linford: Littoral Press 179 pages -
illustrated with more than 90 black & white photographs £12.99
Two Tree Island - poems & prose - Mervyn Linford: Littoral Press 124 pages illustrated b/w photos £7.99
Hippocrene - Anthology chosen from the best poems entered for the Littoral Press full collection poetry competition 2017 - 12 poets - including 12 full colour plates by the artist Janet Green: Littoral Press 110 pages £12.50
Talking to the Bees - poems - Mervyn Linford: The Brentham Press of St Albans 50 pages £4.50 plus £1.50 P&P
The Fobbing Horse - From Suffolk Punch to Cyberspace - a poem for the Plotlands:
book length autobiographical poem by Mervyn Linford: Littoral press 186 pages -
illustrated throughout with b/w photographs £9.99
Two Essex Poets - poems - Frederic Vanson & Mervyn Linford: The Brentham Press of St Alabans -
72 pages £4.95 plus £1.50 P&P
Dawn's Tinder Box - poems - Mervyn Linford: Littoral press 100 pages £7.99
The Judas Deer - poems - Mary Blake: Littoral Press 92 pages £7.99
Selected, New and Unpublished Poems 1980-2006 - Mervyn Linford: Littoral Press 400 pages £9.99
Migrations to Solitude - poems & prose - Michael Molyneux: Littoral Press 138 pages £6.99
Bright Moon, Still Heart - poems and essays - Michael Molyneux: Littoral press 112 pages £7.99
The Night is my Woman - poems - Michael Molyneux: Littoral Press 56 pages £7.50
Metaphysics in the Forest - poems - Andrew Hawthorne: Littoral Press 76 pages £7.50
The Beatitudes of Silence - a spiritual journey through the seasons in irregular sonnets -
Mervyn Linford: Littoral Press 64 pages £6.50
Autumn Manuscript - poems/pamphlet - Mervyn Linford: Littoral Press 50 Pages £3.50
The Wheel of Weathers - poems/pamphlet - Mervyn Linford: Littoral Press -
a poem and a b/w photograph for every month of the year £3.99
The Weather Man - prose - a spiritual journey through the year - Mervyn Linford: Littoral Press 144 pages £8.99
Fields of Asphodel - poems - Mary Blake: Littoral press 70 pages £8.50
Toad Lichen - poems - Caroline Ackroyd: winner of the Littoral Magazine poetry pamphlet competition March 2006 Littoral Press 36 pages - Out of Print.
The Coggeshall Chronicles - A Writer's Year in the County - Essex & Beyond -
Mervyn Linford with 12 b/w lino cuts by Penelope Cline: Littoral press 234 pages £9.99
The Woods of Ashridge - poems - Mary Blake: Littoral Press 79 pages £7.99
Nature Study - poems - I P Taylor: Littoral Press 77 pages £8.99
The Dengie Diaries - Country Journal - Littoral Press 272 pages - illustrated with b/w photographs - £11.99
All That Jazz and Other Poems - Adrian Green 83 pages £9.00: Littoral Press 2018
Before Dusk - Barbara Strangward Littoral Press 2018 50 pages £7.00
From George to George book length poem about George Eliot and her Husband by Margaret Eddershaw- 53 pages £7.50: Littoral Press
Mapping the Borders - Rose Flint - Littoral Press 2019 100 pages £9.00
Journey down the Stour 211 pages - £11.99 - Littoral Press 2018 - contains 70 plus b/w photographs
Please read the Blog on this website for more details
"The Angler's Other Eye" - 156 pages - £10.00 - includes 42 black and white photographs - Littoral Press
The Saxon Shore - 59 pages - £7.99 - includes an hour-long Cd of the poem - Littoral Press
2019
Natural Histories - Richard Whiting - 52 pages - £7.99 - Littoral Press 2019
Penn Fields - Neil Leadbeater - Littoral Press 2019 £8.50 86 pages
Poems for the Planet - Mervyn Linford - Littoral Press 2020 A4 Format £12.50 196 pages
Poems in Shadowtime - Judy Gahagan - Littoral Press 2020 £7.50 - 50 pages
Hinterland: a poetry collection by Grace Gauld - 74 pages - £9.00 - Littoral Press 2020
The Killing of the Crystal Tigers, poems for the young and the young at heart illustrated in colour:
Poems Mervyn Linford - Colour Illustrations Jan Green - Littoral Press 2020, £12.00, 94 pages
The Years Fulfilled - Collected Poems 1941-2001 - Dorothy Gibson - Littoral Press 2021 - £7.50 - 89 pages
Essex Imagined - Verse & Visions - Poems & Paintings - Mervyn Linford - Littoral Press 2021
- £11.50 - 65 pages
Poems Sketched upon the M60 - Sam Hickford - Littoral Press 2021 - £7.50 - 49 pages
The Clear Daylight - Peter Branson - Littoral Press 2021 - £8.50 - 81 pages
Before we Breathe - Jackie Biggs - Littoral Press 2021 - £8.00 - 54 pages
Beltane to All Hallows - summer and autumn in the Essex & Suffolk countryside - Mervyn Linford - Littoral Press 2021 - £9.99 - 182 pages - illustrated with b/w photographs
Meanderings - Paper Mills to Collier's Reach - a book length illustrated poem about a seasonal journey along the Chelmer/Blackwater Navigation - Mervyn Linford - Littoral Press 2021 - £9.00 - 81 pages
Advent to Passiontide - winter & spring in the Essex & Suffolk countryside - Mervyn Linford - Littoral Press 2019 - illustrated with full colour photographs - £12.50 - 230 pages
Reading Between the Lines - Neil Leadbeater - Littoral Press 2020 - £8.50 - 83 pages
Bridge Across The Stour - Volume One Autumn - Country Journal - Prose, Poetry, B/W Photographs - Mervyn Linford - Littoral Press 2021 - £9.99 - 174 pages
Bridge Across The Stour - Volume Two Winter - Country Journal - Prose, Poetry, B/W Photographs - Mervyn Linford - Littoral Press 2022 - £9.99 - 160 pages
Smudge - poetry collection by Dominic James - Littoral Press 2022 - £8.50 - 61 pages
The Gloucester Fragments - Poetry Collection by Neil Leadbeater - Littoral Press 2022 - £8.50 - 72 Pages
Back Country - Poetry Collection by Kathleen McPhilemy - Littoral Press 2022 - £9.00 - 92 pages
Selected Poems 1968-2014 by Nicholas Tapp - Littoral Press 2022 - £8.50 - 109 pages
Bridge Across The Stour by Mervyn Linford - Littoral Press 2022 - £9.99 - 197 pages
Bridgre Across The Stour by Mervyn Linford - Littoral Press 2022 - £9.99 - 150 pages
Collected Poems by David Cooke - Littoral Press 2023 - £20.00 - 493 pages
Small Fry by Roger Elkin - Littoral Press 2023 - £9.50 - 94 pages
Birdsongs by Mervyn Linford - The High Window Press 2023 - 150 pages - £9.50
Arrangements in the Key of Light by Mervyn Linford - The High Window Press - 130 Pages - £9.00
A Hoot in the Darkness by Mervyn Linford - Political/Religious/Literary - Satire: Littoral Press:
£8.50 - 126 pages
All the Birds - Poetry by Mark Totterdell - Littoral Press 2023 - £10.00 - 74 pages
Nettleflower Against Purple Poetry by Caroline Ackroyd - Littoral Press 2023 - £12.00 - 186 pages
Shepherds Warning by Mervyn Linford - The High Windows Press - 108 pages - £9.00
Cello Music by Mervyn Linford - Littoral Press 2024 - Selection of Unpublished Seasonal Poems -
214 Pages - £10.00
A Party Business by Roger Elkin - Littoral Press 2024 - £9.50 - 112 Pages
Shifting Sands by Anne Symons - Littoral Press 2024 - £7.00 - 36 Pages
Sailing to Sligo - An Irish Journey - Poetry collection - Littoral Press 2024 - 81 pages - £9.00
The Degas Tree - Poetry Collection by Richard Whiting - Littoral Press 2024 - 69 pages - £8.50
I started off with the intention of only publishing the poetry of nature and the spirit. I felt that poetry that concerned itself with environmental issues was under represented by the majority of poetry publishers and wanted to help those poets whose nature/spiritual work deserved to be in the public domain. I now publish poetry on any subject but still like to publish the best nature/spiritual work submitted.
Although I have been published by a number of other small presses and in many magazines and periodicals I also publish my own poetry and prose with the Littoral Press. I feel that this gives me greater editorial freedom even if the kudos of being published by another publisher may be lacking. For those of you thinking of self publishing remember that if it was good enough for authors like George Bernard Shaw and Beatrix Potter initially, then it's good enough for you!
Sample poems:
Planting Potatoes During Chernobyl
The seed went in two days
before the clouds of Chernobyl
Shiva-danced over the Strath.
We joked about tubers
glowing in the dark.
It rained for six weeks.
The leaves grew to lovely sheen.
Tiny flowers lured bees and butterflies.
Roots swelled Edzell Blues, skins of livid heather.
Kerr’s Pinks, soft carnation hue, marble-fleshed.
All perfect, as new potatoes.
Leave them for maincrop?
Eat and run? Dig before
the roots turn to slush, cells run riot?
Let them grow.
Death and potatoes
go a long way back in my family.
Our old Irish men in North America
would not risk potatoes again.
They planted maize
because the sun could cure what the soil could not.
In that newer world, death was above ground,
in the clear living light.
Tom Bryan from Collected Poems Volume One 1984-2010
EROSION (ST KILDA)
(Evacuated, 1930)
In the end it wasn’t famine.
Though, by the God they feared
it had come close enough.
Nor was it tetanus,
taking babies with the appetite
of a folk-tale ogre.
The weather they had endured,
their ruggedness akin
to the Soay sheep
that cropped the rough pastures
above Village Bay.
Ferocities of wind,
iron-clad beatings of rain,
now drifting deep and thick,
could not defeat skin lagged
against this landscape’s lore.
When the gales paused,
people got wind of Canada, Australia,
life on the mainland.
Who would be left to climb
the Stacks for solan geese,
fulmar oil or puffin eggs
when Hirta felt the heartbeat
of the modern age?
On the horizon, the mailboat,
unarmed yet dangerously loaded
with word from émigrés,
weakening the St Kildan resolve,
like tongues of sea
testing the resistance of rock
and scattering spoil
onto empty beaches below.
Solan geese (Gannet)
Richard Whiting from the competition anthology Hippocrene
Owl
I closed the curtains on evening, saw you
a silhouette topping the telegraph pole.
brown beech screech
Now I hear your soft hoo - disturbingly close -
the drawn pause, the long hollow tremolo.
wood hollering hoot
You swoop from oak to oak, further and further
away across the fields calling your territory in.
hill hooter jenny howlet
You claim your old names brown hoolet:
jinny yewlet billy hooter
returning
you tell me of daybreak, your first post
your last before sleep.
Jennie Carr winner of the 2017 Littoral Press full collection poetry competition.
Black-tailed Godwits – Mersea Island
Three godwits –
three black-tailed godwits
standing at the tide’s full edge.
One - on one leg:
head tucked in beneath a wing -
snoozes.
The others – busier with worms and molluscs –
and all such things secreted in the ooze beneath their feet
are almost black
silhouetted in the heat of late September
and the sun-shot, glittering, shatter of the sea
in smithereens.
Bladder wrack and eelgrass
seep into the senses with the smell
of oyster smacks and cockle spits and brine
and early, but expected, from the east
the darkening skeins of those dark-bellied geese
who write their cursive script across a sky as wide as winter.
Mervyn Linford from Credo published by Mica Press of Wivenhoe, Essex.
What a waste
(for Ian Dury)
There’s a feeling, like the memory of a Kursaal ride,
an old wind, a cold wind that stirs inside.
Rolling in like the wind off the estuary tide,
down a dead flat, mud flat, eight miles wide.
And
somewhere, somefing, somehow sighed,
what a waste - what a waste,
Ian Dury died.
Snazzy little geezer wiv a spazzy stick.
A concrete mixer voice, rough and fick.
Takes the stage, like a fief on the nick.
Hard bard, art tart, don't giva shit.
And
somefing, somehow, somewhere sighed,
what a waste - what a waste,
Ian Dury died.
Words of an angel, dressed wiv a mallet,
mixed wiv spit from a painters palette.
Raw sound, foot down, pushed to the limit,
escaped from the cage of an old cock linnet.
And
somehow, somewhere, somefing sighed,
what a waste - what a waste,
Ian Dury died.
Derek Adams MA from Everyday Objects Chance Remarks - Littoral Press
Shadows
In the room are faded daffodils
They live only in their shadows
Tinted yellow, as earthbound spirits
Hang their bones with jaundiced flesh;
Or semblance of it. Eyes make up
The filtered light with memories,
Of questions left unanswered,
Books discarded half-way through.
How small the room seems
Now in the solitude of night,
It is tinted shades of quiet
And the ticking of a vast clock.
Adrian Green
(Previously published in Psychopoetica 31 and Chorus & Coda published by Littoral Press)
The Gum Tree
If ever I had the inclination to hug a tree,
it would be this one -
standing there in its solitariness,
the nude bone of its trunk
changing shade throughout the day
from bright white to blue or grey
according to the disposition of the clouds.
Standing there with the smoothness
of wishbone, knucklebone, stone.
Towering over the Tongan Way,
as night fell, illuminating the place
like a long straight moon, a totem of light
signifying the way home.
Grace Gauld - from Hinterland