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I Just Stepped Out

I Just Stepped Out

Summary

In October 2013 Felix Dennis was told he had terminal cancer. He was in the midst of a 30-day poetry reading tour, and characteristically he chose to continue, performing to sell-out audiences with his legendary verve and enthusiasm. He also began compiling this, his tenth, book of verse. Divided into two parts: the first, 'Premonitions', is a selection of poems written over the years when, in Dennis's words, 'the heart knew what the mind dared not perceive'. Having always lived on the edge, he intuited an early death. The second part, 'A Verse Diary', consists of poems slected by Dennis from the many he wrote between the date of his terminal diagnosis and his death. Poems which, he felt, were possibly the best he had ever written. Topped and tailed with the Author's Notes, this book takes readers on a physical, emotional and psychological journey. Sadly, Felix Dennis did not live to see its publication.

Reviews

  • You feel he lived it so richly, so dangerously, to be so wise for our delight.
    Dr Robert Woof, The Wordsworth Trust

About the author

Felix Dennis

Publisher and poet Felix Dennis was one of Britain's most colourful maverick millionaires. Imprisoned in 1971 as co-editor of OZ magazine and acquitted on appeal, he founded his own magazine publishing company in 1973 and made millions with the sale of Personal Computer World and MacUser in the mid-eighties. Today, Dennis Publishing remains a privately owned company with headquarters in London and New York City. Titles include The Week, Auto Express, Maxim, Men's Fitness and Computer Shopper. Following a life-threatening illness, his first collection of poetry, A Glass Half Full was published by Hutchinson and the second, Lone Wolf, in 2004. Eight more collections followed, accompanied by sell-out reading tours on both sides of the Atlantic. The Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection is awarded yearly, as part of the Forward Prizes for Poetry. As a lover of trees, his lifetime ambition was the planting of a large native broadleaf forest in Warwickshire. He had homes in England, the USA, St Vincent and the Grenadines and died of cancer in June 2014 at his home in Warwickshire.
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