In this debut collection Maureen Jivani exposes moments of her working life as a nurse just as skilfully as she retells and reimagines the fairy tales of childhood, or the discovery of her Grandmother's dancing shoes `buried in a box, / wrapped in tissue paper'.
Jivani's greatest skill, perhaps, is her ability to make new these experiences with measured reflection and curiosity. These poems are at times seductive, at others clinical, by turns funny and philosophical, yet what runs through each is a precise and mature use of language not always found in a first collection.
The poems here are frequently surprising, consistently polished and beautifully put together. This is the work of a poet who might be new to publishing collections, but is no stranger to the delicate crafting of language.
