The Rapture

Poems that express vulnerability, an uncertainty leading to things lost (or gained): tragedy, grief, dying or the likelihood of dying, evolve throughout, linking into stories of childhood, growing up, travelling, and family.Janet Fisher writes about people as if she had known them all her life. And yet, in a book so warmly peopled, she writes from that lonely spot within a crowd, that spot we all inhabit. Resolutely honest, trusting the plain truth to speak, Brittle Bones is a wonderfully buoyant collection which honours both the rich and drab texture of our lives, without value judgements but with a fierce sense of our commonality. I found such pleasure in Fisher's latest book -- a new kind of sadness, thoughtfulness (unworldliness almost), which makes the work all the richer. -- Mimi Khalvati

Tim Cumming was born in Solihull and was brought up in the West Country. His poetry collections include The Miniature Estate (1991), Apocalypso (1992, 1999), Contact Print (2002) and The Rumour (2004). His work has appeared in numerous anthologies, including The Forward's Poems of the Decade, and Bloodaxe Books' major 2010 anthology of poetry from Ireland and the British Isles, Identity Parade.