Philip Gross dons several hats. He’s winner of the T.S.Eliot Prize for poetry; writes terrific fiction for readers of any age who like to explore the young adult world; and he is the Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Glamorgan.

He is also gracious enough to give Barbican Press a few cheering words as we launch our ‘doctored books’* list.

“Who knows what writing is evolving into, in our time? The market makes its cautious guesses. Meanwhile (and against the odds) a fertile niche has opened in our universities, especially in the postgraduate study where free play and deep investigation can go hand in hand. Let’s welcome a publishing venture that brings to light some of the unaccountable, the brilliant mutations on which evolution might just depend.”

* Philip does challenge the term doctored books – our play on books that were written for a PhD. For him it smacks of neutering, like a cat, books that have something snipped off rather than exist in all their vulgar glory. It’s a fair comment. Still, we like ‘doctored books’. It has a sense of traditional books undergoing surgery somehow to come out radically different. It makes you think again – exactly what our titles aim to do.

Photo of Philip from walesonline.