Café des Artistes

He is a strong, sophisticated, funny original. Since 1983, the poems in his collections have explored sex, politics, the wild west, and language in a wide range of styles: formal, direct, swashbucklingly experimental. The mix of traditionalism and ignoring convention shakes you into reading with fresh eyes and mind

Ruth Padel

Williams's great skill is to make the places and people he's writing about seem to be absolutely central to the concerns of poetry, now and always

Ian McMillan

His poetry comes at you from any angle. You could no more predict what he will do next - from one collection to another, from one poem to another - than you can know whether or why Cootie Williams will come after Johnny Hodges or Tricky Sam or Harry Carney. About the only thing you can be sure of is that whatever he serves up will be well worth reading

John Lucas, Other Poetry

John Hartley Williams, still resident in Berlin, has the most recognisably English voice... open to both the influence of European poetry and a very British absurdism, both of which mark him as at his own precise angle to the mainstream

W.N.Herbert, Poetry London

One of our finest contemporary poets

Steve Spence, Tears in the Fence