Mircea Dinescu is one of Romania's leading poets. By the late 1980s he and his work were seen as controversial and confrontational, and his final book before the revolution of 1989 could only be published abroad. In 1989 he was liberated from house arrest by a large crowd in Bucharest who carried him triumphantly to the national television building. There he announced to his country and the world that the dictator had fled. Since then he has avoided compromising himself by writing for a satirical political magazine, has mocked at history by starring in a gastronomic TV show called Politics and Delicatessen, raised goats and set up his own personal winery.