Enjoying the luxury of having poems read to you is always an attractive alternative to facing those austere and often impenetrable lines of printed text. When the poets themselves are doing the reading, you feel particularly privileged.

Hearing the masters’ voices in these selections from archive material recorded in the early Eighties, can offer those already familiar with the poems fresh insights into the verse, and provide newcomers especially sixth formers with an ideal introduction to eight of our most eminent poets.

You do feel as if you’re getting to know the men behind the words: Larkin, matter-of-fact even as he contemplates the finality of death; Thom Gunn is the impassioned academic; Ted Hughes’s soft Yorkshire accent is in stark contrast to the harshness of his themes.

Douglas Dunn sounds like the sort of man you would like to have on your side in an argument. Three of the seven, Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon and Tom Paulin, are all blessed with voices that carry that seductive Irish lilt. They preface most of the poems with introductory remarks. In the case of Gunn and Hughes, they offer valuable explanations of what some of their more obscure poems are about.

But it is Heaney who makes the best use of the opportunity as he thinks aloud about his craft, Irish politics and his obvious delight in language.

An accompanying booklet contains the text of all the poems on the tape.