Promotional Information

'A collection that constantly defies expectation... superb, substantial and intricately varied.' Kate Kellaway, Observer

Shortlisted for the 2017 T. S. Eliot Prize
PBS Autumn Recommendation

About the Author

Michael Symmons Roberts was born in Preston, Lancashire in 1963. He has published six collections of poetry and received a number of accolades including the Forward Prize, the Costa Poetry Award and the Whitbread Poetry Prize. As a librettist, his work has been performed in concert halls and opera houses around the world. An award-winning broadcaster and dramatist, he has published two novels, and is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Reviews

Superb, substantial and intricately varied... One of the wonderful things about Symmons Roberts is his way of pushing poems – and himself with them – in a direction you were not expecting. He constantly reconstitutes the world... Symmons Roberts reminds us of how easy it is to see human extremity without seeing it – a moving feat in what is a first-rate collection.
*Observer*

There is pleasing variety here… Articulate and well-achieved… Symmons Roberts’s voice reverberates the most.
*Literary Review*

Enchanting.
*Daily Telegraph*

It is a book for our times, hopeful yet grounded, and not above its subject.
*The Times Literary Supplement*

A powerful and nuanced portrait of one of England's most dynamic and fascinating cities...a must-read.
*I Love MCR*