What unites Henri Beyle (who blossoms as Stendhal), the Watcher on the glazed veranda, Leah Lee (wife of Jules Laforgue), the Lady presiding over the Game of Tanka, and Kurt Schwitters (migrating from Dada to Cumbria)? A fastidious gentleness perhaps? Nostalgia certainly. But equally the presence of brewed tea. In Cumbria is a new collection by the author of Montale: A Biographical Anthology, Occam’s Aftershave, Three Painters and other books, as well as a number of Picaro/Ginninderra chapbooks. John Watson is the 2016 winner of the Newcastle Poetry Prize.
