Preludes are primarily autobiographical poems written in old age. Their principal 'ground' southern England, and especially the area between the New Forest and the Solent. They are 'poems of place' concern the making of a poet.
Jeremy Hooker was born in 1941 and grew up in Warsash near Southampton, and the landscape of this region has remained an important source of inspiration. Many of his poems were written in Wales, where he has lived for long periods of his life, and now lives in retirement. His academic career has taken him to universities in England, the Netherlands and the USA and he was Professor of English at the University of Glamorgan before his retirement. As well as his many collections of poetry, including a Collected Poems from Enitharmon, Hooker is also well-known as a critic and has published selections of writings by Edward Thomas and Richard Jefferies, as well as studies of David Jones and John Cowper Powys, all of them important to his own creative life.
