Mel Pryor's debut collection takes small, ordinary subjects - a rat, a domestic cat, slugs, a fly, a mosquito - and, through concise, precisely turned poems, transforms them into something remarkable or quietly unsettling. 
Tender and ironic by turns, these poems circle family, loss and love, urging the reader to value each fleeting moment of existence. Praised for its delicately balanced eye and ear, its formal control and its jewel-like craft, the book announces a fresh, accomplished and thoroughly enjoyable new voice in British poetry.