About the Author

Patrick McGuinness is the author of two previous books of poetry, two novels, The Last Hundred Days and Throw Me to the Wolves, and a non-fiction book about place, time and memory, and his mother's small Belgian border town of Bouillon - Other People's Countries - which was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley Prize and the James Tait Black Prize, won the Wales Book of the Year, and the Duff Cooper Prize. He is Professor of French and Comparative Literature at St Anne's College, Oxford.

Reviews

This is McGuinness's best collection by far, and stands out from the crowd
*Sunday Times*

An eloquent fusion of the delicate and the direct
*Financial Times, *Summer Reads of 2023**

McGuinness has a delightfully distinctive voice… His buoyant imagination always carries the day… He can be breathtakingly simple, and to have written one poem as good as 'Tired Metaphor' is enough for any writer in any year
*Times Literary Supplement, *Books of the Year**

Arresting... Reminds us that the best poetry is often that which never makes it from the notebook
*Guardian*

Patrick McGuinness writes of the other country of childhood with Proustian élan and Nabokovian delight
*John Banville, author of The Sea*

A deeply moving book of poems... Shimmering with the "sweet dark syrup" of humour, and gorgeous sleights of imagery, these are poems of extraordinary grace; they come up for air with their cupped hands empty, yet brimming with light
*Fiona Benson, author of Ephemeron*

An extraordinary writer of great compassion
*Denise Mina, author of The Field of Blood*

The brilliance of Patrick McGuinness's writing has made his memories unforgettable to the reader
*Adam Foulds, author of The Quickening Maze*

Brilliant... A book alive with understated yearning
*Literary Review*