…….not only Martin’s finest book, but one of the best you are likely to read this year. George Szirtes
The Remaining Men is a super book, and my breath was absolutely stopped by this poem (Bear) in particular. The whole collection treats masculinity tenderly, in a way that is rare to see. Do seek it out. Rishi Dastidar
Bravo for a book that’s heart-breaking and funny, enraging and bolstering, and beautiful, all at once – a love letter to *people*. Katy Evens-Bush
The word that kept coming to mind when reading The Remaining Men was generosity. ……The Remaining Men will make you cry, make you angry, and make you laugh in all the right places. Peter Raynard, Everyody’s Reviewing
The Remaining Men is a mature, endlessly moving and thoroughly eclectic masterclass in how to make poetry do its job. Here is a poet with composure, considering his readers at every turn, drawing us into the existential angst we all share and using poetic devices wisely and skilfully for maximum impact. Pat Edwards, London Grip
It is a clear-eyed, unsentimental and loving consideration of what it is and was to be an older man in this time, true to the voices from which Figura has drawn these beautiful poems. Pippa Little, The Lake
Acutely observed, incisive and precise, The Remaining Men sees Martin Figura combining precision, wit and compassion to produce a collection that is linguistically dexterous and deeply effective. Keeping his gaze on those whose lives are too easily dismissed by society and government, he achieves this potent clarity without a shred of didacticism. Instead we are drawn into worlds of his characters to have our vision enlarged.
Martin Figura’s The Remaining Men is a bold, ambitious collection, a Condition of England book, written from the inside and from below the salt. Personal tragedy and loss are part of the larger state of things, while the State as we have understood it since 1945 is collapsing under the weight of the indifference and hostility of those who govern. Figura’s response to these conditions is to keep his attention fixed on the telling detail, the sign of life, the endurance of ‘ordinary’ people. Sentimentality would ruin such a book, but Figura seems to have none of it, and the poems’ richness of feeling emerges from fidelity to craft – to phrasemaking, to comic timing, and to a sense of dramatic life.
Sean O’Brien
Martin Figura’s poems are humane, clear-eyed, and compassionate without the least sentimentality. He has written directly out of people’s lives, particularly in hospitals, in the army and workplace. He is laureate of the ordinary and overlooked. For all those reasons The Remaining Men is a very powerful collection that deserves to be read widely.
George Szirtes
Precise and powerful, these are portraits of ordinary and extraordinary lives, interwoven with the poet’s own remarkable story. They form a collection of great intellectual rigour, skill and emotional force – but written with such tenderness, such a light touch, that you are willing to follow him into the most challenging territory. A good thing, because this book will deepen your understanding of the messy business of being alive.
Clare Shaw