
Losing none of the exuberance & verbal agility which have become a hallmark of Simon Armitages poetry these poems are more obviously personal
- the ensuing risks of vulnerability & exposure more dangerous. The poems mark a coming-of-age of a poet who is by now established as a leading voice. The book is arranged in three sections. The first part the Book of Matches" is a series of sonnets. Each poem is designed to relay the urgency of a struck match packed with discoveries flashes of insights on family & life. The poems in the middle section " Becoming of Age" relate incidents from other times other lives & experiences to a common life. The final section " Reading the Bans" is a moving sequence of poems on the poets marriage."