Brian Patten

Brian Patten (born 7 February 1946) is an English poet and author. He came to prominence in the 1960s as one of the Liverpool poets, and writes primarily lyrical poetry about human relationships. His famous works include: "Little Johnny's Confessions", "The irrelevant Song", "Vanishing Trick", "Emma's Doll", "Impossible Parents", amongst others.

Career

Patten was born in Bootle, England, near the Liverpool docks. He attended Sefton Park School in the Smithdown Road area of Liverpool, where his early poetic writing was encouraged. He left school at fifteen and began work for The Bootle Times writing a column on popular music.

Together with the other two Liverpool poets, Roger McGough and Adrian Henri, Patten published The Mersey Sound in 1967. One of the best-selling poetry anthologies of modern times, The Mersey Sound aimed to make poetry accessible to a broader audience. It has been described as the most significant anthology of the twentieth century. Together with Henri and McGough, Patten was awarded the Freedom of the City of Liverpool in 2001.

Patten's first published volumes of poems were Little Johnny's Confession (1967) and Notes to the Hurrying Man (1969). The later collections Storm Damage (1988) and Armada (1996) are more varied, the latter featuring a sequence of poems concerning the death of his mother and memories of his childhood. Armada is perhaps Patten's most mature and formal book, dispensing with much of the playfulness of former work. He has also written comic verse for children, notably Gargling With Jelly and Thawing Frozen Frogs.

Patten's style is generally lyrical and his subjects are primarily love and relationships. His 1981 collection Love Poems draws together his best work in this area from the previous sixteen years. Charles Causley commented that he "reveals a sensibility profoundly aware of the ever-present possibility of the magical and the miraculous, as well as of the granite-hard realities. These are undiluted poems, beautifully calculated, informed - even in their darkest moments - with courage and hope."

Patten's poem So Many Different Lengths of Time has in recent times, become a popular poem recited at Funerals. Opening his poem with verse by Pablo Neruda, Patten's poem argues that it is the act of remembrance which offers family members the best antidote to the anguish of loss. In tackling the subject of grief, Patten views poetry as performing an important social function: ‘Poetry helps us understand what we’ve forgotten to remember. It reminds us of things that are important to us when the world overtakes us emotionally.’

Selected bibliography

Publications with others

• The Mersey Sound (1967)

Poetry collections for adults

• Little Johnny's Confession
• Notes to the Hurrying Man
• The Irrelevant Song
• Vanishing Trick
• Grave Gossip
• Love Poems
• Storm Damage
• Grinning Jack
• Armada
• Selected Poems
• Collected Love Poems
• The Projectionist's Nightmare
• Geography Lesson

Books for children

• The Elephant and the Flower
• Jumping Mouse
• Emma's Doll
• Gargling With Jelly
• Mr Moon's Last Case
• Jimmy Tag-Along
• Thawing Frozen Frogs
• Juggling With Gerbils
• The Story Giant
• Impossible Parents, illustrated by Arthur Robins (Walker Books, 1994), OCLC 31708253
• The Impossible Parents Go Green, illus. Robins (Walker, 2000)
• The Most Impossible Parents, illus. Robins (Walker, 2010)

As editor

• The Puffin Book of Utterly Brilliant Poetry
• The Puffin Book of Modern Children's Verse