Alexis Lykiard (born 1940) is a British writer of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

heritage, who began his prolific career as novelist and poet in the 1960s. His poems about jazz have received particular acclaim, including from

Maya Angelou Maya Angelou ( ; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, popular poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and ...

Hugo Williams Hugo Williams (born Hugh Anthony Mordaunt Vyner Williams) is an English poet, journalist and travel writer. He received the T. S. Eliot Prize in 1999 and Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2004. Family and early life Williams was born in 1942 in ...

Roy Fisher Roy Fisher (11 June 1930 – 21 March 2017) was an English poet and jazz pianist. His poetry shows an openness to both European and American modernist influences, while remaining grounded in the experience of living in the English Midlands. ...

, Kevin Bailey and others. Lykiard is also known as translator of Isidore Ducasse, Comte de Lautréamont,

Alfred Jarry Alfred Jarry (; 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907) was a French symbolist writer who is best known for his play '' Ubu Roi'' (1896). He also coined the term and philosophical concept of 'pataphysics. Jarry was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, ...

Antonin Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French writer, poet, dramatist, visual artist, essayist, actor and theatre director. He is widely recognized as a major figure of the E ...

and many notable French literary figures. In addition, Lykiard has written two highly praised intimate memoirs of

Jean Rhys Jean Rhys, ( ; born Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams; 24 August 1890 – 14 May 1979) was a British novelist who was born and grew up in the Caribbean island of Dominica. From the age of 16, she mainly resided in England, where she was sent for he ...

: ''Jean Rhys Revisited'' (2000) and ''Jean Rhys: Afterwords'' (2006). According to David Woolley of ''

Poetry Wales ''Poetry Wales'' is a triannual poetry magazine published in Bridgend, Wales. Founded by Meic Stephens and now published by Seren, it is edited by Zoë Brigley. Since its first publication in 1965, the magazine has built an international reput ...

'':

As poet, novelist and translator, Alexis Lykiard has won many admirers over the years, but the early novels apart, his work has not received the popular attention it deserves. He has created a body of work that is erudite and witty but never obscure ... Lykiard's language is vivid, breathtaking in its sheer physicality, while still suggesting more ..."Selected Poems 1956–96" page
official website.

Early life and education

He was born Constantinos Alexis Lykiardopoulos in

Athens, Greece Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...

, in 1940, to a mother, Maria Casdagli who was from

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

(her family being involved with the

Lancashire cotton industry Textile manufacture during the British Industrial Revolution was centred in south Lancashire and the towns on both sides of the Pennines in the United Kingdom. The main drivers of the Industrial Revolution were textile manufacturing, iron found ...

), while his father Antonis Lykiardopoulos hailed from the island of

Chios Chios (; el, Χίος, Chíos , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greece, Greek list of islands of Greece, island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. Chios is ...

."My Greek Background"
Alexis Lykiard website. Lykiard left Greece with his parents just after the

German occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 193 ...

, at the start of the four-year

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War ( el, ο Eμφύλιος �όλεμος ''o Emfýlios'' 'Pólemos'' "the Civil War") took place from 1946 to 1949. It was mainly fought against the established Kingdom of Greece, which was supported by the United Kingdom ...

, travelling via relatives in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...

to England. He has lived since 1946 in the UK, where he learned English and was duly anglicised from the age of six. In 1957, at the age of 17, he won the first Open English Scholarship ever awarded by

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

, graduating with a First-class Honours degree in 1962.Biographical note for ''Getting On: Poems 2000 – 2012''
Author's website. While at Cambridge University, he was editor of the university magazine ''

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

'' (originally called ''The Granta'').

Writings

Fiction

Lykiard's debut novel ''The Summer Ghosts'', written when he was a teenager, was a best-seller in the 1960s, dealing explicitly with sex in the era following the Lady Chatterley trial – "Described on the cover blurb as 'the literary bombshell of the year,' this is a young author's 'literary' first novel, full of complexity and poetic descriptions, the narrative framework being the protagonist's drafting a therapeutic memoir while in a

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the English ...

psychiatric clinic after a breakdown." Lykiard published eight further novels – including the autobiographical ''Strange Alphabet'' (set in the Greece of 1970) and ''The Drive North'' (depicting the life of a freelance writer) – before abandoning fiction in favour of his first love, poetry. His last published novel was based on and took its name from the 1982 British drama film ''

Scrubbers ''Scrubbers'' is a 1982 British drama film directed by Mai Zetterling and produced by Don Boyd starring Amanda York, Kathy Burke, and Chrissie Cotterill. It was shot primarily in Virginia Water, Surrey, England. It was inspired by the success ...

'' directed by

Mai Zetterling Mai Elisabeth Zetterling (; 24 May 1925 – 17 March 1994) was a Swedish film director, novelist and actor. Early life Zetterling was born in Västerås, Sweden to a working class family. She started her career as an actor at the age of 17 at ...

, and was written to coincide with the film's release.

Poetry

His numerous collections of poems have been widely praised, and include ''Milesian Fables'', 1976 ("...an epigrammatic quality – fresh and honest transmissions of experience" –

Gavin Ewart Gavin Buchanan Ewart FRSL (4 February 1916 – 23 October 1995) was a British poet who contributed to Geoffrey Grigson Geoffrey Edward Harvey Grigson (2 March 1905 – 25 November 1985) was a British poet, writer, editor, critic, exhibition c ...

; "Very good indeed, entertaining, well-made, and with lovely modulations of mood form grave and tender to the witty and ironic" –

Vernon Scannell Vernon Scannell (23 January 1922 – 16 November 2007) was a British poet and author. He was at one time a professional boxer, and wrote novels about the sport. Personal life Vernon Scannell, whose birth name was John Vernon Bain, was born i ...

), ''Cat Kin'', 1994 ("Contagiously cat-like in all its dexterous twists" –

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

); ''Living Jazz'', 1990 ("Thank you for loving enough and living enough to write Living Jazz" –

) and ''Skeleton Keys'', 2003, of which

Angus Calder Angus Lindsay Ritchie Calder (5 February 1942 – 5 June 2008) was a Scottish writer, historian, and poet. Initially studying English literature, he became increasingly interested in political history and wrote a landmark study on Britain during t ...

wrote: "His argument with the world is brilliantly waged. Readers will learn a lot while they are moved by it." The suite of poems that makes up ''Skeleton Keys'' explores the troubled era in Greece into which Lykiard was born, reassessing his personal ties with that history – involving family secrets and lies, public and private betrayal and heroism – "to underline how truth and lies are relative at last"."Skeleton Keys" page
Alexis Lykiard website. Lykiard's 40-year collection, ''Selected Poems 1956–96'', received appreciative critical accolades, with

Dominic Behan Dominic Behan ( ; ga, Doiminic Ó Beacháin; 22 October 1928 – 3 August 1989) was an Irish songwriter, singer, short story writer, novelist and playwright who wrote in Irish and English. He was also a socialist and an Irish republican. Born ...

calling Lykiard "The heir to my friend

Louis Macneice Frederick Louis MacNeice (12 September 1907 – 3 September 1963) was an Irish poet and playwright, and a member of the Auden Group, which also included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis. MacNeice's body of work was widely ...

", while Kevin Bailey wrote: "Alexis Lykiard is the true lineal heir to Lord Rochester and

Dean Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Du ...

. He is an unsettling poet to read.... Forty years devotion to one craft – that of Writer. And his earthly reward from this philistine and anti-intellectual English society? An obscurity and relative poverty that is the inverse of his talent and contribution he has made to British literary culture... The voice of quality and reason in an age of kitsch... This book is certainly a must buy." His recent poetry publications have focused on the

haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, ...

, and

Andy Croft Andy Croft (born 1956) is an English writer, editor, and poet based in North East England."About the Contributors", in Edward J. Carvalho (ed.), ''Acknowledged Legislator: Critical Essays on the Poetry of Martín Espada''. Rowman & Littlefield ...

reviewing 2017's ''Haiku High and Low'', which he described as "a new batch of satirical epigrams", said: "Alexis Lykiard as always gives the traditional Japanese lyrical form a witty and satisfying punch." Of his latest publication, ''Winter Crossings: Poems 2012–2020'' Merryn Williams said that "this poet obviously does not mean to go gently into the night. Let's all hope that if we live to be eighty we can write like that. Shoestring can be proud of its newest books."

Non-fiction

Lykiard has in addition written non-fiction, including two books that draw on his friendship with

(Lykiard is a long-time resident of

Exeter, Devon Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

, and would visit Rhys in the nearby village of

Cheriton Fitzpaine Cheriton Fitzpaine is a village in Devon, England, located 4 miles (7 km) north-east of Crediton. The population of the parish in the 2011 Census was 556. The village is noted for its historic buildings, including the old Primary School, ...

, where she lived for the last two decades of her life): ''Jean Rhys Revisited'' (2000) and ''Jean Rhys: Afterwords'' (2006). Reviewing the former,

Iain Sinclair Iain Sinclair FRSL (born 11 June 1943) is a writer and filmmaker. Much of his work is rooted in London, recently within the influences of psychogeography. Biography Education Sinclair was born in Cardiff in 1943. From 1956 to 1961, he was educa ...

characterised it as "A haunted meditation....A proper tribute to the unjustly reforgotten, as well as an heroic version of the writer's life, the slanted autobiography", while

Chris Petit Chris Petit (born 17 June 1949) is an English novelist and filmmaker. During the 1970s he was Film Editor for ''Time Out'' and wrote in ''Melody Maker''. His first film was the cult British road movie '' Radio On'', while his 1982 film ''An Unsu ...

wrote in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'':

As translator

Lykiard is a respected translator from French of avant-garde classics, including the complete works of Lautréamont, and novels by

and

Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...

(complete and unexpurgated versions of the erotic novellas '' Les Onze Mille Verges'' and ''Les Memoires D'Un Jeune Don Juan'' for the first time in English), alongside

Surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

prose and poetry,

Louis Aragon Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review '' Littérature''. He w ...

Jacques Prévert Jacques Prévert (; 4 February 1900 – 11 April 1977) was a French poet and screenwriter. His poems became and remain popular in the French-speaking world, particularly in schools. His best-regarded films formed part of the poetic realist movemen ...

and

Pierre Mac Orlan Pierre Mac Orlan, sometimes written MacOrlan (born Pierre Dumarchey, February 26, 1882 – June 27, 1970), was a French novelist and songwriter. His novel ''Quai des Brumes'' was the source for Marcel Carné's 1938 film of the same name, starring ...

(the first unexpurgated translation of ''Masochists in America''). Lykiard's translation of ''

Les Chants de Maldoror ''Les Chants de Maldoror'' (''The Songs of Maldoror'') is a French poetic novel, or a long prose poem. It was written and published between 1868 and 1869 by the Comte de Lautréamont, the ''nom de plume'' of the Uruguayan-born French writer Isid ...

'' by Isidore Ducasse, originally published in 1970 by

Allison and Busby Allison & Busby (A & B) is a publishing house based in London established by Clive Allison and Margaret Busby in 1967. The company has built up a reputation as a leading independent publisher. Background Launching as a publishing company in Ma ...

, was the first complete annotated English edition of the work, and provided "a close reading of the original text that is stylistically accomplished (as might be expected of a professional translator who made some mark as a novelist in his own right in the 1960s and 1970s).""Comte de Lautréamont"
Olive Classe (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English: A-L'', Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2000, p. 818.

Exact Change Exact Change is an American independent book publishing company founded in 1989 by Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang who, outside of their publishing careers, were musicians associated with Galaxie 500 and Damon and Naomi. The company specialises i ...

published ''Maldoror & the Complete Works'' of the Comte de Lautréamont in 1994, when the ''

Washington Post Book World ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nat ...

'' said: "Alexis Lykiard's translation is both subtle and earthy... this is the best translation now available." Containing "a translation not only of all Ducasse's major texts but also of some more marginal pieces, and a thorough critical apparatus", it remains the only one-volume annotated edition."Lautréamont – Maldoror & the Complete Works"
page at Exact Change.

Bibliography

Fiction

* 1964: ''The Summer Ghosts'' (

Blond Blond (male) or blonde (female), also referred to as fair hair, is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some yellowish color. The color ca ...

) * 1966: ''Zones'' (Blond) * 1967: ''A Sleeping Partner'' (

Weidenfeld & Nicolson Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991. History George Weidenfeld ...

) * 1970: ''Strange Alphabet: A Novel of Modern Greece'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) * 1973: ''The Stump'' (

Hart-Davis, MacGibbon The British publishing house of Hart-Davis, MacGibbon was formed in 1972 by its parent group, Granada. The parent company had acquired the publishing concern of Rupert Hart-Davis in 1963 and the house of MacGibbon & Kee (founded by James MacGib ...

) * 1974: ''Instrument of Pleasure'' (

Panther Panther may refer to: Large cats *Pantherinae, the cat subfamily that contains the genera ''Panthera'' and ''Neofelis'' **''Panthera'', the cat genus that contains tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards. ***Jaguar (''Panthera onca''), found in Sout ...

Original) * 1976: ''Last Throes'' (Panther Original) * 1977: ''The Drive North'' (

Allison & Busby Allison & Busby (A & B) is a publishing house based in London established by Clive Allison and Margaret Busby in 1967. The company has built up a reputation as a leading independent publisher. Background Launching as a publishing company in Ma ...

) * 1982: ''Scrubbers'' ( W. H. Allen, )

Poetry

* 1963: ''Journey of the Alchemist'' (

Sebastian Carter Sebastian may refer to: People * Sebastian (name), including a list of persons with the name Arts, entertainment, and media Films and television * ''Sebastian'' (1968 film), British spy film * ''Sebastian'' (1995 film), Swedish drama film ...

) * 1967: ''Paros Poems: An Island Sequence'' (Athens: Aiphroe) * 1969: ''Robe of Skin'' (Allison & Busby; ) * 1972: ''Eight Love Songs'' (Transgravity; ) * 1972: ''Greek Images'' ( Second Aeon Publications) * 1973: ''Lifelines'' (

Arc Publications Arc Publications, also known as Arc, is an independent publishing house in the UK, publishing contemporary poetry from new and established writers from the UK and abroad, specialising in the work of international poets writing in English and the ...

) * 1976: ''Milesian Fables'' (Arc; ) * 1976: ''A Morden Tower Reading'' (with

; Morden Tower Publications; ) * 1985: ''Cat Kin I'' (Rivelin Grapheme Press; ) * 1985: ''Out of Exile (Selected Poems 1968–85)'' (Arc; ) * 1990: ''Living Jazz'' (Tenormen Press; ) * 1990: ''Safe Levels'' (Stride; ) * 1991: ''A Lowdown Ecstasy'' (with Christopher Cook; Spacex Literature) * 1992: ''Food for the Dragon'' (with Christopher Cook, John Daniel, Tony Lopez) * 1993: ''Beautiful Is Enough'' (Westwords) * 1994: ''Cat Kin'' (rev/expanded edn;

Sinclair-Stevenson Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd is a British publisher founded in 1989 by Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson. Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson became an editor at Hamish Hamilton Hamish Hamilton Limited was a British book publishing house, founded in 1931 ...

; ) * 1995: ''Omnibus Occasions'' (Headlock Press) * 1996: ''Selected Poems 1956–96'' (

University of Salzburg The University of Salzburg (german: Universität Salzburg), also known as the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (''Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg'', PLUS), is an Austrian public university in Salzburg municipality, Salzburg state, named a ...

; ) * 2003: ''Skeleton Keys'' (Redbeck Press; ) * 2007: ''Judging By Disappearances: Poems 1996–2006'' (Bluechrome; ) * 2008: ''Unholy Empires'' (Anarchios Press; ) * 2009: ''Haiku Of Five Decades'' (Anarchios Press; ) * 2009: ''Travelling Light – Thirty Haiku'' (Anarchios Press, Limited Edition – 100 signed copies) * 2010: ''Haiku at Seventy'' (Anarchios Press; ) * 2012: ''Getting On – Poems 2000 – 2012'' (Shoestring Press; ) * 2013: ''Old Dogs and No Tricks – Forty plus haiku'' (Anarchios Press Limited Edition, 100 signed copies) * 2014: ''Divers Haiku – Forty odd haiku'' (Anarchios Press Limited Edition, 100 signed copies) * 2015: ''Schooled For Life'' (Shoestring Press, ) * 2017: ''Haiku High and Low'' (Anarchios Press Limited edition 100 copies signed) * 2018: ''Time's Whirligig'' (Anarchios Press Limited edition 100 copies signed) * 2020: ''Feet First: Haiku at Eighty'' (Anarchios Press Limited edition 100 copies signed) * 2020: ''Winter Crossings: Poems 2012–2020'' (Shoestring Press, )

Non-fiction

* 1993: ''The Cool Eye'' (texts of two interviews with

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. The author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, an ...

; Stride; ) * 2000: ''Jean Rhys Revisited'' (Stride Publications; ) * 2006: ''Jean Rhys: Afterwords'' (Shoestring Press; )

Selected translations

* 1970: ''Lautréamont's Maldoror'' (

) * 1977: ''Lautréamont's Poésies'' (Allison & Busby) * 1989:

, ''Days And Nights'' (

Atlas Press Atlas Press began publishing in 1983, and specialises in extremist and avant-garde prose writing from the 1890s to the present day. It is the largest publisher in English of books on Surrealism and has an extensive list relating to Dada, Surreal ...

, ) * 1994: ''Maldoror & the Complete Works'' – Comte de Lautréamont (

) * 1995:

Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French French poetry, poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish-Belarusian, Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered ...

, ''Flesh Unlimited'' (Creation Books) * 2003:

, ''Heliogabalus'' (Creation Books, ) * 2011:

, ''Masochists in America'' (Penniless Press Publications, ) * 2019: Antonin Artaud, ''Heliogabalus or, the Crowned Anarchist'' (Infinity Land Press, )

References

External links

Official website.
* Alan Morrison
"Lykiard's Peak" (review of 'Getting On – Poems 2000 – 2012'')
The Recusant, 2013. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lykiard, Alexis 1940 births Living people Alumni of King's College, Cambridge 20th-century British novelists Greek emigrants to the United Kingdom Translators from French 20th-century British poets 21st-century British poets 21st-century British male writers British memoirists 20th-century translators 21st-century translators British male poets British male novelists 20th-century British male writers English-language haiku poets