Edwin Brock is a widely published but relatively little-known poet of uneven talents, a writer who combines the concern for personal identity with a nostalgic regret, even bitterness, over life's disappointments and a sardonic, amused perspective toward the world around him. He has maintained a self-conscious stance in which his own experiences are paramount, yet this autobiographical perspective does not degenerate into excessive confessionalism or maudlin self-pity. His derivative early verse, noted for a technique in which short unrhymed lines are used to accommodate his subjective, even sentimental, observations, has gradually given way to more recent work in which his own distinctive voice dominates. He has published thirteen collections of verse.

Brock was born in Dulwich, near London on 19 October 1927, the son of an electrician who died when Edwin was ten, and educated in English public schools. After serving two years (1945-1947) in the Royal Navy, he worked...