In Standard Midland, he confronts and worries at nuances of perception and the politics of understanding. Many of the poems are concerned with landscapes, experienced, imagined or painted, particularly the scarred and beautiful North Midlands landscape in which he has lived for nearly thirty years.

Standard Midland contains work mostly written since his Bloodaxe retrospective The Long and the Short of It: Poems 1955-2005 and his texts for the artist's book Tabernacle, his recent collaboration with Ronald King. Publication coincides with his 80th birthday.

'Standard Midland is an honest appraisal of what it is possible to say, and what remains to be said, by an artist in old age. It finds Fisher at his most approachable and makes an excellent introduction to this important poet's work' – Paul Batchelor, Guardian

'The personality that emerges from Fisher's poetry, for all his influences, is altogether English: ironic, humorous, self-deprecating and unpretentiously local' – Elaine Feinstein

'A poet of cities in growth and in dereliction…His knowledge of urban landscape is formidable, and expressed with an originality of touch which makes these poems, at their best, revelatory’ – Helen Dunmore

'Fisher’s fineness lies in the extraordinary, intimate communication he achieves. He accomplishes this through the medium of a sophisticated, well-mannered art…a real respect for his own and his reader’s individuality’ – Anne Cluysenaar

'There is no poet alive whose work has challenged or interested me more’ – August Kleinzahler