Described as one of the finest poets the island has produced in modern times, the work of the late, Paul Lebiedzinski, has been published in for the first time.

’Until the Manxmen are Driven Away: The selected poems of Paul Lebiedzinski’ will be released this weekend by Culture Vannin.

A very familiar and much-loved character of the island between the 1970s and mid-1990s, Paul was best known as a poet and satirist who regularly performed impromptu readings at folk and cultural evenings, also publishing his poems in local newspapers.

Born in 1951 to a Manx mother and his Polish airman father, who was stationed at Jurby, Paul grew up in the north of the island and, by the 1970s, had begun to build a reputation for his thrilling and challenging performances of poetry in pubs around the island.

His writing was at times a mix of nostalgia, humour, satire and anger, fuelled by the changing face of Manx society, the lost way of life and the authority and the political policies of the 1970s and 80s, creating poems that are considered to be the most provocative throughout Manx literature.

The title of the book comes from his poem, ’Colonel Pimp’, which pokes fun at the ’when-I’ character that moved to the island in the 60s and 70s, blamed by many at the time for vastly inflating the housing prices and forcing a change in the Manx way of life:

’I’ll grab all until I own every green hill

’And the Manxmen are driven away’.

He also wrote about the housing situation in ’Lament For the Manx Homeless’ and ’Champions of the People’, while ’Lambfell Chapel’ and ’Thatching Down South,’ offered his own heartfelt look on the rural way of life that was disappearing through time.

Although Paul never published his work, enough rough recordings existed to compile an album of recordings, entitled ’Six Foot under’, which was released in 1995, shortly after his death, aged 43, and again in digital form in 2018.

He was also the feature of a film, ’Yn Gareyder’, produced by cultural academic George Broderick and Peter Maggs and produced by Foillan Films in 1986.

’Paul’s poetry represents a unique and brilliant voice in Manx literature,’ said James Franklin, of Culture Vannin, who compiled the 63 poems contained in the book.

’His work has the power to generate an enormous amount of debate and inspiration today, decades after it was first written.’

’The publication of his work is long overdue, and there is no doubt that it marks an important event in the literary and cultural history of the island.’

’Until the Manxmen are driven away: The selected poems of Paul Lebiedzinski’ is available from bookshops around the island or directly from Culture Vannin, priced £8.50.

by Mike Wade

Twitter:@iomnewspapers