Please find the most recent poetry reviews below.
- Poetry Review of ‘Wounded Deer’ by Roger TurnerRoger Turner – Wounded Deer (Graffiti Books, 2026) A fair amount of contemporary poetry is opaque and can leave the reader (this one, at least) bemused, bewildered and sometimes even a little frustrated; now and then, not only is the subtext impenetrable, but the surface text itself is incomprehensible too. It’s refreshing, therefore, to encounter… Read more: Poetry Review of ‘Wounded Deer’ by Roger Turner
- Poetry Review of ‘Highway Cottage’ by Ralf WebbRalf Webb – Highway Cottage (Penguin Random House, 2025) Ralf Webb’s second collection of poetry, Highway Cottage (Penguin Random House, 2025), is a richly populated space filled with family, friends and those local to the lands he returns to, which is the world of the West Country. The cover, with its twisting, blossoming apple tree… Read more: Poetry Review of ‘Highway Cottage’ by Ralf Webb
- Poetry Review of ‘Wing’ by Matthew FrancisMatthew Francis – Wing (Faber & Faber, 2020) One of the surprises of Matthew Francis’s poetry collection Wing is that the poet as an individual (the private man behind the public poet, if you will) rarely seems to reveal himself beyond the opening poem ‘Longhouse Autumn’; aside from the ventriloquising middle section (‘Micrographia’) in which… Read more: Poetry Review of ‘Wing’ by Matthew Francis