We were pedestrians

A collection of 44 poems. The majority are concerned with issues of memory, identity, childhood and family life. A more direct approach to autobiographical writing has led to poems that deal with recent family experience, (eg 'My Children Have Tails'), and also poems that deal with memories of childhood (eg 'The Swing', 'The Roller'). At the same time a more fictional imaginative line is pursued. 'Ecopoesis' is an 11 page poem about the future colonization of Mars. The originality of this consists in its blending of issues of childhood, identity and domestic space with scientific material and the science fiction genre. The collection also features a sequence of four short versions of scenes from Beowulf which are rigorous in their relationship to the original text. There are also experiments with style, in poems such as 'Grimsby', which makes use of the villanelle to write about North Sea Fishermen, and the collection is rigorous in its approach to form and structure. Other poems deal with material probably for the first time in English poetry - eg 'Self-Seal' (about self-sealing envelopes), 'A Saucepan With A Glass Lid' (self explanatory), and the domestic lavatory ('Flush' and 'The Lavatory'). Shortlisted - TS Eliot Prize 2005.