Iain Sinclair (1943, E), was born in Cardiff, and is a writer and filmmaker basing much of his work around London. His early work was mostly poetry, much of it published by his own small press, Albion Village Press. He was (and remains) closely connected with the British avant garde poetry scene of the 1960s and 1970s – authors such as Edward Dorn, J. H. Prynne, Douglas Oliver, Peter Ackroyd and Brian Catling are often quoted in his work and even turn up in fictionalized form as characters. Sinclair was for some time perhaps best known for the novel Downriver (1991), which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the 1992 Encore Award. It envisages the UK under the rule of the Widow, a grotesque version of Margaret Thatcher as viewed by her harshest critics, who supposedly establishes a one party state in a fifth term.
Books
- Back Garden Poems, poetry, 1970
- The Kodak Mantra Diaries: Allen Ginsberg in London, documentary, 1971
- Muscat’s Wurm, poetry, 1972
- The Birth Rug, poetry, 1973
- Lud Heat, prose and poetry, 1975
- Suicide Bridge, prose and poetry, 1979
- Flesh Eggs and Scalp Metal, poetry, 1983
- Autistic poses, poetry, 1985
- Flesh Eggs and Scalp Metal: Selected Poems 1970–1987, poetry, Paladin, 1987
- Significant wreckage, poetry, 1988
- White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings, fiction, 1987 (originally a limited edition from Goldmark but reprinted by Paladin)
- Downriver, novel, 1991
- Jack Elam’s Other Eye, poetry, 1991
- The Shamanism of Intent, Goldmark, 1991
- Radon Daughters, novel, 1994
- Conductors of Chaos: a Poetry Anthology, editor 1996
- Penguin Modern Poets Volume Ten: Douglas Oliver, Denise Riley, Iain Sinclair, poetry, 1996
- The Ebbing of the Kraft, poetry, 1997
- Lights out for the territory: 9 Excursions in the secret history of London. Granta Books. 1997. ISBN 1-86207-009-1., non-fiction
- Slow Chocolate Autopsy, fiction, 1997
- Crash, essay, 1999
- Liquid City, non-fiction, 1999 (with Marc Atkins)
- Rodinsky’s Room, non-fiction, 1999 (with Rachel Lichtenstein)
- Sorry Meniscus, essay, Profile Books, 1999
- Landor’s Tower, novel, 2001
- London Orbital, non-fiction, 2002 (paperback edition 2003)
- White Goods, poems, essays, fictions, 2002
- Saddling The Rabbit, poetry, 2002 Etruscan Books
- The Verbals, in conversation with Kevin Jackson, 2003 Worple Press
- Dining on Stones, novel, 2004
- Edge of the Orison: In the Traces of John Clare’s ‘Journey Out Of Essex’, non-fiction, 2005
- The Firewall (selected poems 1979 – 2006), poetry, Etruscan Books, paperback, 2006
- Buried At Sea, Worple Press, paperback, 2006
- London: City of Disappearances, editor, various essays about London psychogeography etc., 2006
- Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire: A Confidential Report, non-fiction, 2009
- “Sickening”, in Restless Cities, Edited by M. Beaumont and G. Dart, London: Verso, 2010. 257–276.
- Ghost Milk, non-fiction (memoir), 2011
- Blake’s London: The Topographical Sublime, The Swedenborg Society, 2012
- Kitkitdizze… Seeing Gary Snyder, Beat Scene, January 2013
- Swimming To Heaven: The Lost Rivers of London, The Swedenborg Society, 2013
- Austerlitz and After: Tracking Sebald, chapter deleted from ‘American Smoke’, Test Centre, 2013
- Red Eye, poetry, Test Centre, 2013
- Objects of Obscure Desire, Goldmark, 2013 (illustrated by Sarah Simblet)
- American Smoke: Journeys to the End of the Light, 2014
- Cowboy / Deleted File, chapter deleted from ‘American Smoke’, Test Centre, 2014
- London Overground: A Day’s Walk around the Ginger Line, 2015
- Black Apples of Gower, Little Toller Books, 2015
- Westering, Test Centre, 2015
- Liquid City, Expanded edition, non-fiction, Reaktion Books, 2016 (with Marc Atkins)
- Seeschlange, Equipage, 2016
- My Favourite London Devils: A Gazetteer of Encounters with Local Scribes, Elective Shamen & Unsponsored Keepers of the Sacred Flame, Tangerine Press, 2016
- The Last London: True Fictions from an Unreal City, Oneworld Publications, 2017
- Living with Buildings: Walking with Ghosts – On Health and Architecture, Wellcome, 2018