My Name Is Swan
A poem in three parts by Jan Noble, bringing together three major narrative works into one unified poetic epic.
For the first time, Ink & Ribbon Press is publishing Jan Noble's trilogy as a single manuscript. What has lived across film, theatre, radio, and recording now takes definitive shape as a carefully made book — a modern poetic journey moving from river to city to underworld.
"My name is Swan / King of effortless rivers / Mercenary of the estuary / Lord of the white feather — / This is my manor." From My Name Is Swan
One book. Three movements. A single imaginative arc.
My Name Is Swan brings together three major narrative poems by British poet Jan Noble — works that have lived across performance, film, radio, theatre, and recording — and presents them together for the first time as a unified poetic work.
Structured as a modern epic in three movements, the collection follows a journey through river, city, and underworld.
In My Name Is Swan, a solitary voice drifts downriver through the margins of the city, a wayfaring monologue tracing exile, resilience, and fragile moments of grace. In Reynard, the medieval trickster fox is reimagined as a hunted migrant moving through modern streets. In Body 115, inspired by the unidentified victim of the 1987 King's Cross fire, Noble turns toward the underworld itself in a Dantean descent through loss, memory, and transcendence.
Together these three works form a powerful poetic cycle moving from river journey to hunted myth to subterranean revelation — visionary, theatrical, and deeply human.
- Title My Name Is Swan
- Author Jan Noble
- Publisher Ink & Ribbon Press
- Publication October 2026
- Formats Limited edition paperback and fine art edition
- Positioning The first unified print edition of Noble's trilogy
The trilogy unfolds in three parts.
Each part is a movement within the book's larger architecture — river, city, underworld.
My Name Is Swan
A wayfaring river monologue following a solitary voice through the hidden margins of the city — exile, resilience, and a difficult grace moving toward dawn.
Reynard
A modern reworking of the medieval fox legend, recast as a contemporary pursuit through city streets where folklore, migration, and survival collide. Read by John Nettles and released as a limited-edition vinyl LP.
Body 115
A Dantean descent inspired by the long-unidentified victim of the King's Cross fire — an underworld journey through grief, memory, and spiritual reckoning.
A book with a life beyond the page.
These works have already existed across film, radio, theatre, and recording. Ink & Ribbon's edition gathers that history into a definitive printed artifact.
My Name Is Swan — Poetry Film
Film by Adam Carr · Premiered at Curzon Cinema, London · Winner, Best Narrative, LA International Poetry Film Festival
Body 115 — Live Performance
National Theatre Tour 2025 · Winner, Best Innovative Play, London Pub Theatres
- My Name Is Swan won Best Narrative at the International Poetry Film Festival, Los Angeles.
- Reynard was recorded as a full narrative performance read by John Nettles and released on limited-edition vinyl.
- Body 115 won Best Innovative Play at the London Pub Theatres Awards and toured nationally in 2025.
- The work has been broadcast on BBC Radio and set on the University of Milan syllabus.
Acclaimed across forms.
"A triumph in poetic theatre performance. Utterly captivating."
The Reviews Hub"One hour of literary and poetic brilliance. Not to be missed."
A Young(ish) Perspective"Where theatre meets poetry, history and time travel Jan Noble has gilded tonsils."
London Pub Theatres MagazineJan Noble
Jan Noble is a British poet and performer whose work spans page, stage, film, radio, and recording. He has given readings and performances in New York, Paris, Milan, Venice, and Rome, including appearances at Milan's Teatro Filodrammatici and Poetry on the Lake alongside former UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.
His work has been broadcast on BBC Radio, studied at the University of Milan, and recognised for its unusual ability to move between literary, theatrical, and cinematic forms. My Name Is Swan brings together three of his major narrative works as one unified manuscript for the first time.
Bring this book into being.
My Name Is Swan will be published by Ink & Ribbon Press in a limited edition print run, with a small number of fine art editions produced as archival objects. Pre-orders support the making of the book and help establish its first life in the world.