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Poet and dub troubadour Aidan Andrew Dun's
prolific output includes epic poems and original music, including
the legendary The Cool Shall Inherit. (UK Transculture).
Born in London,raised for ten
(in)formative years in the West Indies.
The grandson of dancer Dame Marie Rambert, Dun listened to her recitations
of Milton and Homer late into the night. This gave him not only
a passion for epic poetry but the ability to entice others into
his love for it. At the age of five he announced that he would write
the Comedy of London - at age seventeen he disappeared from school
and took up as a troubadour traveling from Amsterdam to Marrakech.
Dun was inevitably drawn back to London by its treasure house of
myth. Living in derelict and abandoned mansions for many years,
he explored streets and libraries, decoding the magical geometry
of King's Cross, magnet to visionaries before him. The result,
Vale Royal (pub.
Goldmark) , was launched at the
Albert Hall ( an event fabulised by Iain Sinclair in 'Lights Out
for the Territory'). Written in the form of a quest, Duns
epic poem dreams of transforming the urban wasteland of King's Cross
into a city of canals - Blake's Jerusalem in the heart of Babylon.
His newly-released epic poem, Universal,
explores at its deepest levels the double enigma of form and formlessness:sacred
gender. This narrative rollercoaster of a poem whirlwinds through
holy lands and pilgrimage places, decoding ancient riddles of sacred
sexuality. Pursuing dangerous autobiographical detours, Dun sweeps
the reader on a remarkable journey through transculture: London,
the West Indies, North Africa, India.
"A compelling and original voice..."
John Greening view Times Literary
Supplement review
"Dun's range of subject matter and use
of language astonish right from the outset."
Hilary Davies view London Magazine
review
"Dun stands apart from all schools and schisms...He is the
carefully regulated trickle of water that cracks stone."
Iain Sinclair
"Vale Royal moves with the ease and clarity of a fresh
spring over ancient stones, making its myths casual even colloquial-
An impressive achievement."
Derek Walcott
"He has an extraordinary sense of the past. Hes one of
those people, along with Blake and Chatterton and others, who are
like a divining rod for history."
Peter Ackroyd
"If there was such a show as Top of the Poets, Aidan Andrew
Dun would be on it."
Michael Ellison reviewing the Royal Albert Hall in the Evening Standard
Aidan Andrew Dun is a visionary, a pied piper of modern poetry.
If it is possible to be lost and found at the same time, then this
is how (Vale Royal) makes one feel.
Kate Kellaway in The Independent.
An epic both deeply idiosyncratic and inescapably public...the poem
rewards many readings. An enduring mystical epic has been added
to our literature.
Michael Moorcock reviewing Vale Royal in The New Statesman
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