Winner of the Ciampi International Poetry Prize 2011.

This collection contains those elements familiar to Martina Evans fans, but this time with a sharper political edge. The title poem is an essay in her most engaging narrative-comic style, familiar to audiences at her superb readings:

My mother never asked like a normal person, it was
I'm asking you for the last time, I'm imploring you
not to go up that road again late for Mass…

"A landlord's daughter and tenth child, Evans must have had to learn early how to make herself heard. So it's not surprising that her poetry, the growing-up-in-Ireland poetry in particular, feels written for performance: playfully punning titles lead through anecdotes bright with local colour and speech to flip-side punch lines designed for a burst of applause and breath of seriousness as the audience waits for the poet to sip from her glass and the next comic narrative to begin. It's a winning formula."
Kate Bingham, Poetry London

Martina Evans, poet, novelist and teacher, was born in Cork, the youngest of ten children. She now lives in London with her daughter Liadáin. She has published three books of poetry and three novels.