City Works Dept.
Philip Hancock
We send all orders via Royal Mail: within the UK, choose from 1st Class, 2nd Class or Special Delivery; for the rest of the world, International Standard or International Tracked. Delivery and packaging charges are calculated automatically at the checkout.
To collect orders in person from the Bookshop, choose Click and Collect at the checkout.
From the publisher
‘Phil Hancock’s insights are precise and authentic – he is part of the great tradition of writers who capture the true spirit of working-class life.’
– Ken Loach
Barely noticed, as if glimpsed through the window of a high-speed train, a familiar England persists: concrete garages, disused warehouses, pebble-dash, caravans, Ritzy’s on a Friday night, a boy scuffing a stone along a pavement.
City Works Dept. has work to do: repairs, maintenance, above all the paying of attention to a stratum of British society whose people and occupations have suffered from long neglect. Philip Hancock’s poems do the job with patience, empathy and unshowy skill.
‘Philip Hancock’s lyrical ballads have the same invigorating combination of song and drama that give the original Lyrical Ballads their intense liveliness. I’ve always liked his cheeky urban insights and info. They hit the spot others don’t even know exists.’
– Hugo Williams
‘True originality: he writes with the sparkling eye of one who has discovered a rich and unaccountably neglected subject for poetic investigation.’
– Christopher Reid