I’d read her first book, “Tattoos for Mother’s Day”, so I knew she had ability. An interesting quirkiness, a hint of darkness in her poetry. It was a quietly competent first book. But so often the second book (or album, or film) is a real disappointment.

But not here. This is a stunning book – her range, her technique, her deftness in expression all point to the development of a real poetic talent.

“The Apprentice” opens with:

“I married a big man with clumsy hands,
whose touch left me fingerprinted with bruises ...”

and ends

“... I turned
and took his hands, set them free.”

Or there’s “Losing the Dark”:

“... away from the glare
that opens you like a knife. How all the birds
might sing themselves to death.”

Her work ranges from the macabre (“St Nicholas and the Salted Boys”) through the sexual (“Shadow Photograph”, "The Apprentice") to the political (“Soulless”). There are fables ( “Lifesaving”, “Holy”) and excursions into other characters (“A Hangman’s New Career”, “Mr Smiley”).
She is funny, she is accessible, she has a sharp mind and an eye for the oddness that lurks in the most ordinary things. She makes you look at the world as though for the first time. She is a real poet.
Carol Ann Duffy summed it up: “Buy it – and then buy it for a friend.”
Neither of you will regret it.