'Reflecting a life spread across two continents, Impossible Preludes continues Taylor’s restless probing of the contradictions of life and language. Here are love poems, poems about language and silence, an elegy for a cat, and an interview with a querulous mathematician, as well as poems dealing with the cruelties of contemporary world politics, ageing, and delight in nature. Once again, the collection shows the stimulating range of tone and style that has been a hallmark of all his poetry. ' (Publication summary)
'Andrew Taylor can be a hard poet to write about. Although he has never seemed especially prolific (in contrast, say, to John Kinsella, who contributes a brief introduction to this new book) his cumulated work is very substantial – another two books will see it cross the thousand page barrier. It’s also very consistent without being at all the same and a reviewer, aiming for any kind of conspectus, will be torn between the opposed tasks of mapping out changes of manner and documenting the recurrent themes that give his work a strong sense of unity. There are changes of mode but they are not really radical. ' (Introduction)
'Andrew Taylor can be a hard poet to write about. Although he has never seemed especially prolific (in contrast, say, to John Kinsella, who contributes a brief introduction to this new book) his cumulated work is very substantial – another two books will see it cross the thousand page barrier. It’s also very consistent without being at all the same and a reviewer, aiming for any kind of conspectus, will be torn between the opposed tasks of mapping out changes of manner and documenting the recurrent themes that give his work a strong sense of unity. There are changes of mode but they are not really radical. ' (Introduction)
