Darwin Survivor

This, his first book-length collection, (Peterloo Poets, 1988), was given a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. After graduating in 1978 with a first in English, Astley founded his poetry publishing house Bloodaxe Books in Newcastle upon Tyne, which he ran alone from home while doing postgraduate research or other jobs until it could pay him a wage seven years later. In 1982, Bloodaxe's first annual funding was secured from Northern Arts, bringing Simon Thirsk on board as co-director of the newly constituted Bloodaxe Books Ltd and giving the struggling imprint a sounder business base