James Fenton writes:

When I lived in Manila, I knew several aspiring poets who felt some frustration at the lack of any outlets for their work. I suggested self-publishing as the answer. This is what I had done over the years with John Fuller and with my brother. Poetry publishing is anyway a small-scale operation. In Manila,where the situation was ideal for the small press, such ventures were not well known. This publication consisted of a book of poems called Manila Envelope, a manifesto called the Manila Manifesto, a poster poem of the Ballad of the Shrieking Man (illustrated by Nicholas Garland), a postcard advertising the publishing activities of the friends who put this together, an envelope in which everything was supposed to arrive (the circulation was entirely by mail). Often there would have been a letter from myself enclosed as well, thanking the subscriber. The envelope has its own interest. It was illustrated with a drawing of the approach to the prawn/shrimp farm I was running at the time on Baluti island, Quezon province, drawn by the young Alexander Garland, son of Nick and future author of The Beach and of the film 28 Days Later.

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