OAK APPLE DAY (2020)

Oak Apple Day was, for the best part of two centuries, an annual public holiday celebrating the restoration of the English monarchy following the dour Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. It marked an end to the worst Puritan influence over public life and private discourse - some of which has undoubted parallels in the policies of contemporary lords and masters.

In this highly prescient new collection of poetry, Johnny Monroe gives voice to these parallels from the perspective of someone accustomed to social isolation. A ‘double album’ of insightful and emotive observations on the here and now and then, ‘Oak Apple Day’ is nonetheless laced with acerbic black humour. But the author’s most comprehensive poetic volume to date also casts its net far wider in encompassing the full range of detachment from one’s fellow man and woman - both optional and mandatory.