“WILLIAM BLAKE’S HAT” 195cm x 270cm. 2025. I’ve re-worked of the composition of Mary Sargant Florence’s 1912 “Literature” mural in The Chelsea Town Hall replacing the Victorian writers with some of contemporary underground poets we have published with New River Press - Heathcote Willams, Greta Bellamacina, James Massiah, Niall McDevitt, Kirsty Allison, Brit Parks, and the wonderful Michael Horovitz who still keeps us all smiling. In the centre the poet Niall McDevitt holds William Blake’s hat (which gives the painting its title). Blake’s hat is taken from a drawing in the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge the inscription POETICA SALVET MUNDUM translates as ‘Poetry Saves the World.’ -ROBERT MONTGOMERY