The ‘bleak and blasty’ sands of Crosby Beach provide the stage for a cast of mysterious and sometimes sinister figures: scavengers and shrimpers, raucous boys, a lonely priest and a disillusioned soldier, with the steely waters of the Mersey, passing ships, and the play of sunlight on distant hills an ever-restless backdrop. In these vivid dramas Nicholas Murray reveals to us the bitter sweetness of departure and return to a place known with the intense intimacy of childhood, and weighs the ‘loss and gain/ that exile forces.’


Praise for Nicholas Murray’s work:

‘A real treat . . . an elemental menagerie in which the poet’s own delight through verbal magic becomes ours.’ 
Christopher Reid, on Of Earth, Water, Air and Fire

‘The poems have an emotional intelligence, a wit, I really admire.’
Michèle Roberts, on City Lights