Nightfisherman: Selected Letters of W.S. Graham, ed Michael and Margaret Snow (Carcanet, £12.95 in UK)

The Scottish poet W.S. Graham (1918-1986) belonged originally to the Neo-Romantic generation of Dylan Thomas, whom he knew personally. In the last decade, interest in him and his work has grown, which will be fed by these letters, since Graham was a vivid writer of prose, a man with many friends and a range of interests. His career ranged from Glasgow, in his youth, to London in the Blitz and, eventually, to Cornwall where he settled (if that is the word) with his wife Nessie Dunsmuir. Since Cornwall at the time was a sanctuary for painters, and Graham himself was interested in the visual arts and even dabbled in them, it is inevitable that many of his correspondents should be painters - Bryan Wynter, Terry Frost, Roger Hilton, Tony O'Malley, Nancy Wynne-Jones. The photographs give an added interest.