Poetry Book Society Recommendation

Dead Redhead is a Book of the Dead in which women have the starring roles, from Ophelia and Marilyn to girl detective Nancy Drew. The heroines celebrated in these dramatically powerful poems are all hunted or haunted by people or powers beyond their control. They die at the hands of serial killers and revolutionaries, or ravaged by murderous fame, or they take their own lives, but all are vibrant, defiant women who give themselves to life, only to be betrayed by those they believe as well as by their own dreams.

"She is risky and challenging, and her poems carry a sting in the tail. She is terrifyingly brilliant."
John Kinsella, Verse

Tracey Herd was born in 1968 in East Kilbride but has lived on the east coast of Scotland for most of her life. She studied at Dundee University, where she was Creative Writing Fellow in 1998-2001. In 1993 she won an Eric Gregory Award, and in 1995 a Scottish Arts Council Bursary. Her first collection, [i]No Hiding Place[/i] (Bloodaxe Books, 1996) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection.