Adrian Henri: I Want Everything To Happen!

Adrian Henri was a British poet and painter best remembered as the founder of poetry-rock group The Liverpool Scene and as one of three poets in the bestselling anthology The Mersey Sound, along with Brian Patten and Roger McGough. The trio of Liverpool poets came to prominence in that city’s Merseybeat zeitgeist of the 1960s and 1970s. He was described by Edward Lucie-Smith as the theoretician of the three. His characterization of popular culture in verse helped to widen the audience for poetry among 1960s British youth. He has the distinct claim of having hosted the young Liverpool lads who became The Beatles, turning them onto avant-garde art, poetry, film, and music. Besides The Beatles, he could name among his friends George Melly and Allen Ginsberg. Unlike McGough and Patten, Henri turned his back on the trendier London scene and chose to remain in Liverpool, saying there was nowhere he loved better. This heavily illustrated biography written by Adrian’s partner of fifteen years is a true celebration of Henri, Liverpool, and The Liverpool Scene.