Abney Park Cemetery’s “lost poets” are the focus of National Poetry Librarian Chris McCabe’s new book, Buried Garden, which was launched with a walking tour on 30 October.
The Harlem Renaissance’s Eric Walrond and the eccentric Reverend Hibbert Newton are among the unsung writers McCabe researched in the cemetery he calls “the lost garden of Stoke Newington”.
McCabe was joined by writer Iain Sinclair at the sold-out event, where they read their own works as well as those of the buried poets. Abney Park was unique in being open to all Christian denominations, and McCabe explained how many of the interred believed in an imminent Second Coming.
Coinciding with the Halloween weekend, the horror stories of Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Machen were also discussed as the two had connections to Stoke Newington.
Machen’s short story “N” inspired McCabe as it describes a hidden idyllic garden in Stoke Newington. His book’s first chapter ends with the statement: “The garden exists for those who are ready to see it.”
McCabe told the Hackney Post: “This responds to the idea of Abney Park being the lost garden of Stoke Newington and of course my book brings this into focus, with particular attention on its lost writers that people walk above every day.
“As with the rest of the books in my series it aims to give the forgotten poems of London another hearing, and to tell their life stories along the way.”
Buried Garden is the fourth instalment in McCabe’s search through London’s Magnificent Seven cemeteries. His poetry was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award in 2013.
Buried Garden is available from publishers Penned in the Margins here.
