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Peter J. King

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Born

in Boston, Lincolnshire, The United Kingdom

Website

https://wisdomsbottompress.wordpress.com/

Genre

Philosophy, Poetry

Member Since

June 2015

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I was born and brought up in Boston, Lincolnshire. Moving to London when I was eighteen, I discovered the Poetry Society (then based in Earl's Court) in 1975, and started getting involved, helping out in the print room and the shop, and with odd jobs (such as chaperoning Dom Sylvester Houédard on one of his visits to London). I started tapocketa press, initially self-publishing, but then going on to publish work by other poets, including Jeremy Adler, Paul Buck, Bob Cobbing, Cris Cheek, Lawrence Upton, Bill Griffiths, Herbert Burke, and many others. With Alaric Sumner I started publishing "words worth" magazine, and Alaric and I also performed together; I was a regular at the Troubadour, round the corner from the Poetry Society (at its old I was born and brought up in Boston, Lincolnshire. Moving to London when I was eighteen, I discovered the Poetry Society (then based in Earl's Court) in 1975, and started getting involved, helping out in the print room and the shop, and with odd jobs (such as chaperoning Dom Sylvester Houédard on one of his visits to London). I started tapocketa press, initially self-publishing, but then going on to publish work by other poets, including Jeremy Adler, Paul Buck, Bob Cobbing, Cris Cheek, Lawrence Upton, Bill Griffiths, Herbert Burke, and many others. With Alaric Sumner I started publishing "words worth" magazine, and Alaric and I also performed together; I was a regular at the Troubadour, round the corner from the Poetry Society (at its old address in Earls Court Square), and aside from readings in London and beyond I was involved in the Poetry in Schools scheme.

I stopped writing at the end of the 1970s, and after a shortish break I became interested in philosophy, doing a B.A. at Middlesex Plytechnic, then going on to Brasenose College, Oxford for my B.Phil. and D.Phil. I've been teaching philosophy since, and have been a lecturer at Pembroke College since 2003. Aside from papers in academic journals, I've published "One Hundred Philosophers" (which has been translated into over twenty languages), and I'm the co-author of "The Philosophy Book".

I had a brief return to writing and publishing poetry in the 1980s, and started working on translations of modern Greek poetry with my partner, the philosopher Andrea Christofidou. There was a long gap, finally broken in 2013 when I became involved in Lucy Newlyn's workshops and forum at St Edmund Hall.

Since then I've been published in magazines such as Acumen. Tears in the Fence, Three Drops in the Cauldron, Dream Catcher, Molly Bloom, Ink, Sweat, & Tears, streetcake, Lighthouse, eyot, Raum, Bare Fiction, The Interpreter's House, and New Walk. I've continued translating poetry from modern Greek, and have started working on translations from German. My latest collection, "All What Larkin (2017, Albion Beatnik Press) is a set of jazz cut-ups from the critical writings of Philip Larkin, some of which I've had the pleasure of performing a number of times with jazz violinist Chris Garrick and keyboard player Dave Gordon. ...more

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Average rating: 4.14 · 4,355 ratings · 366 reviews · 20 distinct works • Similar authors

	One Hundred Philosophers: The Life and Work of the World's Greatest Thinkers 3.31 avg rating — 143 ratings — published 2004 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Déjà Vú it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1976	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Adding Colours to the Chameleon 4.67 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Performance Poets at Battersea it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	All What Larkin by Peter J. King (Goodreads Author), Jude Cowan Montague (Goodreads Author) (Illustrator) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2017	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Contact Light it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ghost Webs 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Secret Tear it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	insofaras it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	CTA-21 to CTA-102 it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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“In September 1914, a man had to stand five feet eight to get into the army. A month later, so great was the need for recruits, the minimum height requirement was lowered to five foot five; in November, after the losses sustained in the First Battle of Ypres, it was lowered again, to five foot three.” (Catherine Bailey, The Secret Rooms, p. Read more of this blog post »

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Published on October 28, 2016 10:56 • Tags: performances, poem, readings, video

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“When we study other peoples arguments, we have to analyze not only the logical steps they take, but also the language they use, to see it their conclusions hold water.”
― Peter J. King, The Philosophy Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained

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