The Lost Poets of Abney Park Cemetery

Poet and writer Chris McCabe shares his findings from his forthcoming book, Buried Garden (October 2021), which documents the lost poets of Abney Park Cemetery. This event continues Chris' ongoing project to discover the great lost poets of London’s Magnificent Seven cemeteries.

Chris takes us around Abney Park and reveals its not-so-obvious literary history that has been waiting for rediscovery. Of those laid to rest in Abney, Chris will explore the poetry of the married couple George Linnaeus and Isabella Varley Banks as well as the spiritual work of Isaac Watts and Thomas Toke Lynch. You will also hear about the recently discovered female poet of the First World War, Alison Cron.

Additionally, McCabe highlights the cemetery’s graffiti as a form of literature, and ensures that William Blake adds his spirit of dissent to the poets buried in Abney Park Cemetery.

Abney Park Trust hosted this event in preparation for Chris' upcoming book release in October. As well as talking about the content of this new book, Chris details the process of researching and writing this book.

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Biography: Chris McCabe

Chris McCabe’s work crosses art forms and genres including poetry, fiction, non-fiction, drama and visual art. He is the author of 12 books which have been shortlisted for awards such as the Ted Hughes Award and the Republic of Consciousness Prize. His most recent books are The Triumph of Cancer (Penned in the Margins, 2018), his novel Mud (Henningham Family Press, 2019) and Poems from the Edge of Extinction: An Anthology of Poetry in Endangered Languages (Chambers, 2019). He works as the National Poetry Librarian.)

Twitter: @mccabio