HEARING EYE Publications
John Heath-Stubbs
Born in London, 9th July 1918. Educated Queen's College, Oxford. His books of verse include Artorius (1972). His last work for Hearing Eye, The Poems of Sulpicia, is already in a second edition. The book made national news (see this piece in the Guardian).
John Heath-Stubbs died on Boxing Day 2006. Obituaries were published in the
Guardian, the
Independent and the
Telegraph.
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Sulpicia is the only woman poet of ancient Rome whose name and work have come down to us. Her poems appear in the manuscript of Tibullus and were at one time attributed to him. These poems reveal a young woman of patrician origins, in love apparently for the first time and speaking with directness and frankness of her passion for her lover Cerinthus. These translations will surely communicate her feelings to readers two thousand years after her own time. ISBN 1870841751 £6.00 |  |
Between 1987-1994 John Heath-Stubbs published with Hearing Eye six sequences of poems, each volume on a different theme, which is approached with wit and humour but not without serious overtones. All the poem sequences are illustrated by Emily Johns.
"The pleasure for me in reading these well produced books is the poetry of Heath-Stubbs, running in harness with the truly delightful drawings of Emily Johns"
Arthur Moyse, Freedom
 | In this series of parodies, John Heath-Stubbs makes six of the cats celebrated by English poets,speak in their own persons and in the style of their owners. They range from Dr. Johnson's cat, Hodge, to an anonymous caller on T.S.Eliot. No one who cares either for poetry or for cats can afford to miss this book. ISBN 1 870841 00 X £3.00 "I bought a dozen copies of Cats Parnassus to give away. This is a marvellously clever and funny pamphlet" |
| Here are 12 poems - one for each of the hours of the day - on clocks, watches and other timing devices. They range from a brash alarm clock and a dignified grandfather clock to an egg-timer and a hectoring pub clock, calling "Time", and the great cosmic clock in which we all find ourselves. There is variety, wit and humour and a touch of the serious mystery of time. ISBN 1 870841 02 6 £3.00 |  |
 | From ancient Egypt and Babylonia to Anglo-Saxon Britain the charm has been one of the oldest and most persistent forms of poetry. Here are nine charms, for the most part designed for modern contingencies. They are witty and amusing as well as poetic - whether they are also effective, readers must judge for themselves. ISBN 1 870841 10 7 £3.00 |
| Everyone knows the old song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas". John Heath-Stubbs has written 12 poems for these 12 days and each is accompanied by an illustration by Emily Johns. ISBN 1 870841 06 9 £3.00 |  |
 | The word chimaera has four meanings. In the first place the Lycian chimaera was the mythical monster slain by Bellerophon mounted on Pegasus, the symbol of poetry. In heraldry a chimaera is an animal made up of parts of different species. The word is also used to suggest any idle or wild fancy or an erroneous notion. Lastly it is the scientific name given to a family of rather strange fishes. In this sequence of poems all these meanings are combined in a witty and humorous way but not excluding wider implications. ISBN 1 870841 35 2 £5.00 |
| Did you ever play this Victorian game? John Heath-Stubbs has chosen eight letters of the alphabet and they spell out his hidden name (a name of horror and terror it is to boot - the parson's cat is the shadow of the parson). ISBN 1 870841 22 0 Re-printed soon! |  |
 | The Torriano Sequences comprises Cats' Parnassus, Time Pieces, A Partridge in a Pear Tree, A Ninefold of Charms, The Parson's Cat and Chimaeras. John Heath-Stubbs says in a specially written preface: "These are, for the most part, light poems... but I've touched on graver subjects - the nature of man and animals, of time and eternity and on the monsters which the sleep of reason breeds... I hope these poems may amuse, perhaps instruct. Let the reader judge." "Heath-Stubbs has a loyal band of followers, whose number - if these books have anything to do with it - will grow rather than diminish." ISBN 1 870841 50 6 £9.99 |
In addition to these John Heath-Stubbs has also edited and written the introduction to In the Shadows by the 19th Century Scots Poet, David Gray (1838-1861).
| David Gray was the eldest son of a Scottish hand-loom weaver of Merkland, near Kirkintilloch. In the Shadows is a sonnet sequence and an unique document, revealing a young man with the promise of being a fine poet, courageously wrestling with the prospect of death. ISBN 1 870841 16 6 £5.00 |  |
To order any of these books by post, please send your name address and postcode, including payment, to:
Hearing Eye, Box 1, 99 Torriano Avenue, London, England NW5 2RX.
Prices are inclusive of postage and packing when books are ordered direct from Hearing Eye.