Adrian Mitchell is a poet, playwright and children's writer. Bloodaxe has published five of his poetry books covering 50 years of his work: Greatest Hits: His 40 Golden Greats (1991), Heart on the Left: poems 1953-1984 (1997), Blue Coffee: Poems 1985-1996 (1996), a Poetry Book Society Choice short-listed for the T.S. Eliot Prize, All Shook Up: Poems 1997-2000 (2000), a Poetry Society Recommendation, and now The Shadow Knows.

Praise for Adrian Mitchell:

"Adrian Mitchell is no more naive than Stevie Smith, but like her he has the innocence of his own experience… real inner freedom and the courage of his own music. Among all the voices of the Court, a voice as welcome as Lear’s fool…Humour that can stick deep and stay funny."
—Ted Hughes

"Joyous, acrid and demotic tumbling lyricist Pied Piper determinedly singing us away from catastrophe."
—Angela Carter