The Fiction Shelf

This rich poem asks many questions and answers few. The poet commands imagery well and peppers the narrative with questions to intrigue and engage the reader. Nature and humanity are combined in a poem whose greatest success is its use of language.

A deeply atmospheric collection of poetry that finds a home in the seas of many places but mostly Scotland. Much more than poems about ships, these artfully crafted works are very personable in their approach and deeply interesting to everybody interested in the human condition.

Grandparents are living history and well worth exploring. History and humour stand side by side in this gently paced but wonderfully contained story of a cross‐generational road trip told through the pages of a child’s journal.

The author transfers his familiarity and passion for an ultimately distant hero and heart throb to a more tender real world. Here a process leads to something far more fulfilling than any picture on a wall.

A short image with an inconsequential end that reflects the futility of the situation. The honest talk reads like an open‐ended discussion on violence and sex. The untempered language tells effectively of an unremarkable happening in an average setting. Effective and brutal.

A violent and swift flow of invective, a visceral yell that reflects a deep frustration at something undefined, despite the many listed targets. A rallying cry against passivity and a crisp example of dialect writing.

A narrative, almost didactic poem whose wandering descriptions match excellently the exotic backdrop and brooding plot.

A poem that revels in its disorder. A memory written as furiously as the time lived. Brief and sharp, this work is beautiful in its honesty.

A poem of pleasant frustration. There is a nostalgia in the brutal honesty of the memories of working class life. The sepia‐toned recollections suggest confusion about a place in a society where death and illness are the only constant.

A brief, intimate poem about a close moment shared. Sentimental and sensual, this poem revels in the tactile nature of relationships.