We are saddened to hear about the passing of Greg Gilbert whose heartfelt and vulnerable poetry pamphlet Love Makes a Mess of Dying let us all into his ongoing struggles against cancer. Examining the collision between tragedy and hope, Love Makes a Mess of Dying follows the struggle to make sense of the prognosis and treatment of a life-threatening disease whilst surrounded by the love and support of friends and family.
Peter Sampson, his publisher, commented: "He was a wonderfully talented person and a great pleasure to work with. It was Carol Ann Duffy who suggested we would like Greg's poetry and, as part of our Laureate's Choice series, we were delighted in 2019 to publish his remarkable pamphlet, Love Makes a Mess of Dying. For the last year or so we had been working with Greg on his second collection, scheduled for next March, and provisionally entitled Notes from an Occupied Country. Our thoughts are with Greg's family. He was a very special person as very many people will know, and his death is a loss to us all."
Greg Gilbert was a writer, artist and musician from Southampton and the father of two young girls. In November 2016 he was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer with secondary lung cancer. He was the lead singer of the band, Delays, who released four albums and was a winner of the Best in The South of England at the National Open Art Competition and exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Greg Gilbert’s collection Love Makes a Mess of Dying was selected by Carol Ann Duffy for the 2019 Laureate’s Choice series. He died on the 30th September, aged just 44. His poetry, art and music lives on.