Red Landscapes collects together the two major strands of Mike Jenkins’ poetry: beautiful love lyrics to his wife and family, and the radical social and political poems which spring from his socialism. Although Jenkins has written some of the best love poems of recent decades he is best known for his biting satire on political subjects and his compassionate poems about the victims of politics. Those without a voice in literature - petrol pump attendants, over-the-hill footballers, beleaguered immigrants - find representation in today’s post-modern, post-industrial Britain, through poems in which humour can belie outrage, and poignancy be celebrated. Such concerns are unusual - extraordinary - for contemporary poetry.