The May Figures ranges from the deep time of geological formation to the present day, peopling its pages with historical and legendary figures, contemporaries, the poet's own neighbours and goddesses. 
At its heart is a major sequence rooted in Holme village in the West Yorkshire Pennines, which travels through Stone Age, European, Asian, Chinese and Massachusetts settings before returning to the May trees of its origin. Preddle weighs 'mays' against certainties in supple forms rich with puns, assonance, repetition and half-rhyme, his precision-tuned language layered with historical cadence yet alert to contemporary life.