Sir Stanley Spencer (1891–1959) was undoubtedly one of the most admired and influential English painters of the twentieth century. Cookham was a major influence on both his life and painting and his reference to the place as ‘a village in Heaven’ is reflected in his famous series of paintings of Biblical scenes featuring local people.

The 2017 Cookham Festival’s Stanley Spencer Poetry Competition invited poets to find inspiration for their own art in the work of this remarkable man. Stanley Spencer Poems: An Anthology publishes a selection from the entries to the competition chosen by its judges, Jane Draycott, Carolyn Leder, and Peter Robinson. From this gathering, the shortlist of commended entries and the prize winners were then drawn.

These carefully selected poems are presented here with an introduction by Peter Robinson, featuring photographs of the artist at work, reflecting this painter’s extraordinary life and works.

Jane Draycott is a UK-based poet with a particular interest in audio and collaborative work. Her collections include, from Two Rivers Press, 'Tideway' (2002, reissued 2022), poems about the lives of the watermen and women working on the London Thames, and 'Storms Under the Skin' (2017) translations from the poems of artist-writer Henri Michaux, as well as five collections from Carcanet Press, including 'The Occupant' (2016, Poetry Book Society Recommendation), 'Over' (2009, T S Eliot Prize shortlist) and her prize-winning translation of the 14th-century dream-elegy 'Pearl'. She teaches on postgraduate writing programs at the universities of Oxford and Lancaster and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.