A Canvey Island Of The Mind
Poems by Ford Dagenham


Published by Blackheath Books
Publication date: June 2011

The first complete published collection from Ford Dagenham, an authentic voice from the English hinterlands, A Canvey island Of The Mind, has been a long time coming. Joy, pain, love, hope, fear, delusion, shopping malls, hospitals and dead shrub verges greet a reader instantly immersed in the interior world of a D. A. Levy reincarnated as a hospital storeman.

Editor Adelle Stripe had a hard time choosing this collection from the extensive writings of a prolific poet. Nameless nurses, the hard bells of time, cooked chicken; all justify equal consideration from Fords free verse vernacular. Based in South Essex, his pomes could be about anywhere.

Praise for Ford Dagenham’s writing:

‘(Like) being trapped in a lift with a mad man, except the more you listen, the more the mad man makes sense, and the more you realise that you too are loosing your mind.’

Tony O’Neill (Author of Digging the Vein and Down and Out on Murder Mile)


‘An honest depiction of nowhere towns in the 21st century . . . chews up and spits out Steve Richmond’s gagakus into a new form . . . wrestles with the demons of boredom like Doug Blazek . . . takes the metonymy of Meat Poetry and bastardises it for his own means . . . a distinctive voice that punches holes in the page . . . treasure this book, take it home, make it yours.’

Adelle Stripe (Author of Some Things are Better Left Unsaid and Cigarettes in Bed)



About the author:


Ford Dagenham was born in South Essex and is allergic to beer, he works in his local hospital. A serial university drop-out he has a string of unfinished novels in the bottom drawer. His poetry and prose can be found online in litzines like Beat The Dust. Ford collaborates on lyrics with Hong Kong based no-wave folkbeat band Leggo and starts bonfires with the books of Jeffery Archer and Dan Brown. Ford is writing a novel based on hospital experiences and is planning to attend the University of East London.