William Martin

William Martin (1925-2010) was a poet of extraordinary vision and musicality. Thoroughly grounded in his native North-East England, its pit communities and industry, his song-like poems nevertheless traverse a vast geographical and historical landscape ranging from deep Celtic and Anglo-Saxon sources to the mythology and sacred sites of India, via a passionate political engagement that never limits song to mere rhetoric. He also drew on children’s games, ballads and street songs in poems showing both political anger and a wider concern for a society losing its common ground, its rituals and rites of passage.

Marratide: Selected Poems brings together poems from William Martin’s four collections Cracknrigg (1983) and Hinny Beata (1987) from Taxus Press; and Marra Familia (1993) and Lammas Alanna (2000), from Bloodaxe Books. Two comprehensive introductory essays by editors Peter Armstrong and Jake Morris-Campbell discuss the life and poetry of William Martin in this edition published to celebrate his centenary. A QR code printed in the book links to archive audio recordings of poems read (and sung) by William Martin.

'Somehow his poems feel ancient and modern at the same time, inhabiting both the past and the present at once.  For me his masterpiece is his long sequence Marra Familia with its spare and beautiful descriptions of the natural world and the spiritual world beyond.' – Ian McMillan, Yorkshire Post, on Marratide: Selected Poems

'A must-buy for lovers of the extraordinary poetry of William Martin, this collection, which celebrates the poet's centenary, brings together poems from his four collections with fascinating introductory essays from the editors. These verses are exquisitely spare yet depthlessly rich in their vision and musicality.  Grounded in North East pit communities and the region's industry, history and mythology, they are uniquely of their time, depicting places and themes uniquely north-eastern via a deeply held social conscience. What is more, Martin's voice survives via a QR code printed in the book which links to archive recordings of poems read and sung by the man himself.  What a treasure this is.' – Jane Pikett, The Northumbrian Magazine, on Marratide: Selected Poems

‘Martin’s poetic world is a multi-layered place. Ancient pilgrim paths are overlaid with colliery wagonways; ritual can mean the incantation of childhood games or the grand procession of banners. [...] Martin’s vision may be firmly rooted in home soil, but it ranges widely through time and space.’ – Andy Potts, North East Bylines, on Marratide: Selected Poems

‘William Martin (1925-2010) was born in County Durham and lived in Sunderland for more than 50 years. He began writing poetry in the 1960s and Bloodaxe published several of his collections. Marratide, also published by Bloodaxe, is an expansive Selected that has been edited by Peter Armstrong and Jake Morris Campbell. It includes a fascinating introduction by the editors that brings us close to this remarkable and singular poet.’ – Will Mackie, New Writing North (New and Recent Poetry from the North)

'A linguistic adventure to be undertaken, surreal in character, but serene in tone, composed of fragments firmly controlled to make a mosaic of meaning from the range of sources.’ – Fenella Copplestone, PN Review, on Marra Familia

'Excitement consequent upon a distinctive voice and vision… Martin’s forms appear to be as simply complex as a recovered childhood… he has not abandoned utter song.’ – Chris McCully, PN Review, on Cracknrigg

‘William Martin is a remembrancer, patiently polishing the common coins of street games, folk songs and customs, and putting them back into circulation… David Jones comes to mind, but not as an immediate ancestor. Martin seems closer to George Mackay Brown, firmly rooted in a specific community and able to give the elements of its common life a sacramental value. But perhaps he is closest of all to the Vasko Popa of Earth Erect, eschewing private poetry to restore the collective symbols, releaf the ikons with gold.’ – Roger Garfitt, London Magazine

Durham Beatitude by William Martin

First screened at the 2022 Durham Miners' Gala, this film combines footage of past Gala gatherings with William Martin reading his poem ‘Durham Beatitude’ which mourns the 83 lives lost in the Easington Colliery Disaster of 1951, remembered at the Gala in 1980. It was first published in William Martin’s collection Cracknrigg (Taxus Press, 1983) and later included in his final collection from Bloodaxe, Lammas Alanna (2000). An extract from the poem is included in Marratide: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2025), edited by Peter Armstrong and Jake Morris-Campbell, along with archive audio of William Martin reading the entire poem.

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