‘Early one morning in London – on Boxing Day – a minicab driver and his customer discover they have much in common. They are of a certain age, came to Britain at about the same time, in their teens, lived in the same street in Kilburn in the 1950s and together can boast 100 years’ residence here. In lifestyle and expectation they seem to live in different Englands. One struggles with the language, the other teaches it and writes books. But the second is seeking to establish a new home in ‘Europe’, while the first dreams of returning to Jamaica. Over two days of adult truancy they discover the divergences that have accompanied their overlapping histories, as they flatter, argue, undermine and adopt each other. What next?’

Markham’s brilliant discursive poem-sequence conjures up another time and another place. He regarded it as possibly his best work.