The lives of French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine sound like something from a Rick Mayall sitcom. Theirs is a tale of forbidden love, drunken rows and cross-channel debauchery, with knife fights, a shooting and even a fish-slapping incident thrown in for bad measure. During a particularly stormy period in 1873, the two Frenchmen lived together at 8 Royal College Street, Camden Town, and there wrote some of their most enduring poetry.

Poet in the City, as an innovative poetry charity, is championing efforts to save 8 Royal College Street, the house in Camden formerly occupied by the celebrated French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine.

An unknown work by the French 19th-century poet Arthur Rimbaud has been uncovered in a newspaper back issue in his hometown in northeastern France, a local bookseller said on Thursday.