Andrew Motions prose memoir In the Blood (2006) was widely acclaimed, praised as an act of magical retrieval and a hymn to familial love. Now, over a decade later and after moving to live and work in the United States, Motion looks back once more to recreate a stunning biographical sequel but this time in verse. Essex Clay rekindles, expands and gives a tragic resonance to subjects that have haunted the poet throughout his writing life. In the first part, he tells the story of his mothers riding accident, long unconsciousness and slow death in the second, he remembers the end of his fathers life and in the third, he describes an encounter that deepens the poems tangled themes of loss and memory and retrieval. Although the prevailing mood of the poem has a sweeping Tennysonian melancholy, its wealth of physical details and its narrative momentum make it as compelling as a fastpaced novel a settling of accounts which admits that final resolutions are impossible.

Binding: Paperback;112 pages; Publisher: Faber and Faber Ltd; Classification: DCF; Weight: 262 g; Dimensions: 178 x 174 x 10

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