I thought he was called Rimboard
I recently completed reading the biography of Arthur Rimbaud who apparently is famous for his poetry. At risk of sounding like a complete philistine, I knew of him as an explorer in Africa. And I'm not really keen on reading poetry even when it's written in my own language. Rambo - his name rings a filmic bell - has inspired generations of musicians, writers, anarchists, all manner of creative and experimental types and Sylvester Stallone. I can't really say why there was so much fuss about his scribblings but he certainly had an extraordinary life and this biography by Graham Robb really gripped me. I thought it would be a dry academic tome that I might dip into and out of but I soon couldn't believe what our little Rambo Rimboard was going to do next. And his life in Africa was so divorced from his life as a writer I think I can be forgiven for not knowing anything about him as a poet. Okay, so I thought Verlaine was Tom Verlaine out of American punk band Telev...