Brian Patten – Are You Across the River or Am I

Brian Patten is one of our most accessible and popular poets having made his name in the 60s as one of the Liverpool Poets alongside Adrian Henri and Roger McGough.

Brian revisits a number of classic favourites, but the performance also combines two very different strands of his most recent poetry. His new book is The Book of Upside Down Thinking. It’s an unexpected collection, full of wit and irrational logic which rattles the cage of conventional thinking. Alongside excerpts from this roller coaster ride of wit, he shares haunting lyrical poems from an as yet unpublished manuscript of moving elegies. One of the UK’s most distinctive and popular poets, Brian has been writing heartbreakingly honest, funny and uplifting poems for nearly five decades. A master of performance, his readings are always memorable.