Kites in Spring: A Belfast Boyhood

by John Harold Hewitt

One of those rare and rewarding books that make poetry seem less an aloof and forbidding mystery, a thoroughly enjoyable collection"" - Ulster Tatler.

72 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1983

About the author

John Harold Hewitt, who was born in Belfast, was the most significant Belfast poet to emerge before the 1960s generation of Northern Irish poets that included Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon and Michael Longley. He was appointed the first writer-in-residence at Queen's University Belfast in 1976. His collections include The Day of the Corncrake (1969) and Out of My Time: Poems 1969 to 1974 (1974). He was also made a Freeman of the City of Belfast in 1983, and was awarded honorary doctorates the University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast.

From November 1930 to 1957, Hewitt held positions in the Belfast Museum & Art Gallery. His radical socialist ideals proved unacceptable to the Belfast Unionist establishment and he was passed over for promotion in 1953. Instead in 1957 he moved to Coventry, a city still rebuilding following its devastation during World War II. Hewitt was appointed Director of the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum where he worked until retirement in 1972.

Hewitt had an active political life, describing himself as "a man of the left", and was involved in the British Labour Party, the Fabian Society and the Belfast Peace League. He was attracted to the Ulster dissenting tradition and was drawn to a concept of regional identity within the island of Ireland, describing his identity as Ulster, Irish, British and European. John Hewitt officially opened the Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre (BURC) Offices on Mayday 1985.

Reviews

[Rosie Frasc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of short form poems; this collection reads as lots of little vignettes into a person’s life - it takes John from childhood to young adulthood but has also seemingly been revised by him when he was much older. It is an incredibly open and honest picture of a life which dips into how he relates to cherished uncles, a Catholic friend, memories of breaking bones, being sick, watching the troubles unfold, grieving loved ones and first seeing the woman he would marry. I almost felt like I knew him a little by the end. Inspired to buy this in a lovely second hand bookshop in Belfast after having a tipple in the John Hewitt pub!