The Duke Tony Conran elucidated through a kind of

elucidated through a kind of lyric diffidence

raw yet tender and full of blessings

all loom large in poems where sound comes first

his poems for grown-ups are less well known

and continue to do so

The Duke Tony Conran elucidated through a kind ofOutside Vallorgana, a tiny, isolated village high in the foothills of the Dolomites, the Duke lives in the villa of his aristocratic ancestors. The last in the centuries old line of the Cimamontes, he spends his days on his land and absorbed in the family archive, tolerated, if gently ridiculed by the villagers who are his neighbours. When he finds out that the village big man is taking timber from his land, he has a decision to make. Will he stay in