SOURCE: A review of Rich, in British Book News, January, 1985, p. 53.

In the review below, Booth blasts Raine for the "basically vacuous" poetry in Rich, although he concedes that the prose section contains "genuine attempts at true artistic achievement."

The latest collection from Craig Raine, his first verse book for five years, is entitled Rich; sadly it is a weak addition to this famous poetry list. Previously, Raine's work has appeared from Oxford University Press (The Onion, Memory, 1978, and A Martian Sends a Postcard Home, 1979) but his appointment as poetry editor at Faber has him bringing out his own work, making him the first poetry editor for that firm since T. S. Eliot to publish himself.

One of the leaders of the 'Martian' school, the loose movement in modern British verse which has its nickname from the title of his second book, Craig Raine writes poetry characterized by...