Notice to Internet Explorer users
Server security: Please note Internet Explorer users with versions 9 and 10 now need to enable TLS 1.1 and 1.2 encrytion protocols in order to access the secure sections of our site, including checkout and account access. Windows users should also consider upgrading to Internet Explorer 11, Microsoft Edge, or switching to Firefox or Chrome.
Instructions for Enabling TLS 1.1 and 1.2 in Internet Explorer versions 9 and 10.
1) On the Internet Explorer Tools menu, click Internet Options.
2) In the Internet Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
3) In the Security category towards the bottom, check "Use TLS 1.1" and "Use TLS 1.2".
4) Click OK.
5) Exit and restart Internet Explorer.
The Stasi Poetry Circle
by Philip Oltermann (author)
£9.99
Faber paperback
In stock
Description
In 1982, East Germany’s fearsome secret police – convinced that writers were embedding subversive messages in their work – decided to train their own writers, weaponising poetry in the struggle against the class enemy. Once a month, a group of soldiers and border guards gathered in a heavily guarded military compound in East Berlin for meetings to learn how to write lyrical verse.
Journalist Philip Oltermann spent five years rifling through Stasi files, digging out lost volumes of poetry and tracking down surviving members of this Red poet’s society, to illustrate the little known story in which spies turned poets and poets spies.