A DARLINGTON author has published his latest book which has been three decades in the making.

Michael Jarvie has been working on the first complete translation of the work of the Austrian First World War poet Georg Trakl for the last 30 years.

His work is understood to be the first of its kind to be published in this country, with the previous three translations since the 1970s originating in the USA.

Speaking about his inspiration behind the book, Mr Jarvie said:"I first encountered the poetry of Georg Trakl in The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry. Then, in about 1985, I came across an edition of Die Dichtungen in a second-hand bookshop on the Bristol Road in Birmingham.

"Using my copy of Die Dichtungen I made a number of translations which I submitted to Stand and other literary magazines. They were all rejected.

"Twenty years later my mother was going on holiday to a small town in Germany called Freudenstadt, so I asked her to pay a visit to the local bookshop and order me a copy of the two-volume edition of Trakl entitled Dichtungen und Briefe.

"It cost in the region of 50 euros and it’s been my Trakl bible ever since."

The work is Mr Jarvie's third book, with the first being a short story collection and the second a thriller.

He is also a poet and screenwriter, and will be giving a talk about his novel in May.

"With the authoritative text at my disposal I began work on my translation of Trakl’s poetry and over the years added a lengthy introduction together with full explanatory notes," he said.

"This was the first time that someone in the UK had attempted to make available to the reading public a complete edition of Trakl’s poetry, given that the three previous translations all originated in the USA.

"I pitched it to a crowd-funding publisher and they said the book would struggle to raise the money, so I opted to self publish."

Autumnal Elegies: The Complete Poetry of Georg Trakl is available buy now.