Our Real, Red Selves (Vagabond Poets): 3

In war and in birth we reveal “our real red selves”, and this volume brings together three poets whose work moves between life and death.

Harry Giles’ Drone explores modern warfare and office life. His “drone” is both a remote-control killing-machine and office drudge who is lonely and lacks job satisfaction. Somehow funny and achingly sad, the drone is the most unforgettable character you’ll read this year.

Marion McCready’s The Birth Garden reflects on the way childbirth has been viewed by the medical establishment over the past century. Disturbing scenes set on sinister wards and in a natural world both real and raw are captured in McCready’s vivid, urgent language.

J.L. Williams’ The History of Fire takes us back to war. Her poems are savage and hallucinatory. She writes not about a single war but a patchwork conflict, whose battlefield moves from ancient Greeks to the Gulf conflict to a nightmarish Vietnam-era ticker-tape parade.

The subjects depicted by these poets are contrasting, but their imagery and intensity echo each other.

Triptychs bring together three poets in one volume to showcase the freshest voices and newest developments in Scottish poetry.