James Berry

James Berry's poems celebrate the inner city life of Britain and the rural Caribbean. They draw on the language and speech rhythms of both cultures. He also wrote the short story collection A Thief in the Village and composed the text for the delightful picturebook A Story about Afiya, illustrated by Anna Cunha. A new edition of his definitive collection Only One of Me, with a foreword by John Agard was published in 2022. James was awarded an OBE for services to poetry, and died in 2017.