Gifts of the Magi

Oldham, England: Incline Press, 2023. Hardcover. Fine. Hardcover. Number 4 of 130 bound copies signed by the poet. Born in Liverpool, Jamie is a poet and translator based in Oxford. He has published seven collections of poetry. His poetry has won numerous awards including the Forward Poetry Prize, the Hawthornden Prize, and the Cholmondeley Award, and his books have been nominated for the Whitbread Award and twice for the T. S. Eliot prize and the Forward Prize. Jamie’s poetry pays minute attention to the details of the natural world and of human history, mixing formal pleasure with a disquieting humor. This new collection plays with traditional ideas concerning wise men and rich gifts – the price of wisdom and the ambiguity of gifts, for both the giver and receiver. Myrrh, the gift brought by Balthazar, for example, is associated in the Bible both with the anointing of kings and with death. The poems delve into the contemporary – as in a lockdown binge-watched TV series about Australian gold-diggers – as well as the biblical and the classical.

This handsome book is the latest work to be designed, printed, and bound at the estimable Incline Press by Graham and Helen Moss. It displays the skill, expertise, and devotion to quality that are the hallmarks of this press, which Graham founded in 1990. The book is printed on some of the last available Zerkall paper ( Zerkall paper mill ceased production in 2021 after experiencing severe flooding). It is hand set in Baskerville types and Rudolf Koch’s Locarno italic for titling. The book is hand bound and wrapped in gold and blue paste paper designed for this book, with a yellow cloth spine. In fine condition. Measures 6.7 x 9.7 inches. Unpaginated [8 pages] PRI/102423.