While Banjo opens with a clutch of fine lyrics elegies & set-pieces at the heart of Samantha Wynne-Rhydderchs new book is a remarkable tale of darkness & light music & silence. Celebrating the centenary of Captain Scotts arrival at the South Pole in 1912 Banjo gives us new psychological insight into the lives of the early Antarctic pioneers as well as an extraordinary account of the role played by music in surviving the long Antarctic winters. Banjo is Wynne-Rhydderchs most accomplished collection to date & further evidence of a writer of great imaginative versatility. Everything is close to the nerve everything under cool emotional pressure. The cuts blossom into freshness & colour. & delight the delight borne out of precision of sound & an exquisite command of register George Szirtes Lines full of beauty sometimes gorgeous sometimes stark.. .implicating us in the essential human situations life death & survival she explores Philip Gross